On Sunday, I took a drive. On the way back, instead of driving down the freeway all the way home, I decided to take an alternate route, a road that leads to a riverside park, along the Snohomish River. We have had very heavy rains for the past few days, and I knew the river would be, if not at flood stage, then close to flood stage. I am glad I took that little detour.

This is the Snohomish River, looking north, toward a bend in which is a building-materials company.  You can also see the boatyard, attached to a marina.  You can see how high the river is running.

This is the river in the opposite direction.  The wind was pretty stiff, with the cloud-cover changing minute by minute.  The light was never the same for a second.

I try to pay attention to things closer to me, too.  When I saw this nearly-leafless plant, I thought “sticker-bush”.  I have no idea what kind of plant it may be, but I figured I should give it a wide berth.  Just look at all those thorns!

I liked this view, for the sky, and the high water.  Do you know that, only a few years ago, I figured out that the water takes its color from the sky?  Boy, did I feel stupid for having gone through my entire life not knowing that!

And, across the road from the river is this big pond that, I’m sure, wasn’t nearly this big last week before the heavy rain.  There were some happy ducks on that pond that found a new place to swim this week.

My alternate route home turned out to be very rewarding.