Mississippi Reflection (oil on canvas, 5 x 7 in.)

6 April, the evening of a beautiful spring day, finds Corey and me driving County Road 29 home from Arnprior.  Just south of Pakenham where the Mississippi River runs close along the highway, the reflections catch my eye again, just like they did this afternoon.  The repeated triangles of the steep, gullied bank, accented by Cedars and bare tree trunks all faithfully reflected in the polished black diamond of the Mississippi River.

We stopped just south of the last trailers of the "Riverbend" trailer park, and as was I was taking some photos in the rapidly falling dusk, Corey noticed a large turtle in the flooded end of the narrow field between the river and the road.  It's front end was tilted up out of the water, but its head was down.  It seemed to be mounted on something about its own size - Snapping Turtles mating!  As I took photos and notes, successive flocks of Canada Geese flew north along the route of the river as if they were following an aerial highway.  By the time one flock had passed out of sight and hearing, another would come, some families of 5 or 6, and some flocks of 20 or 30.  Robins began to sing vespers, a group of several ducks coasted down to the dark river surface and skied in noisily quacking to their watery camping spot for the night.  A Spring Peeper began to call, and after a while was joined by another.  They sang a duet for a while, and when we were seriously losing daylight at just about 8:00 we had a small chorus.  The turtle on top was barely visible, protruding like an oval rock from the river flooded field pond.


45.312699, -76.286809, at the south end of  "Riverbend" trailer park