Mountain streams are full to the brim now that summer's drought has
been over come by several good rain storms and a few light snow falls.
Brooks cascade down the slopes with the crescendous sound of a symphony orchestra.
Leaves have left the trees a background of silver-gray intermingled with
leafy-brown. Overhead the sky is a bright, azure blue. The air is cold and crystal clear.
The sun has just appeared above the ridge and shines with a sincere intensity reflecting
off the network of mountainside brooklets. The scene is a colossal treasure chest full of
jewelry.
The crisp cleanliness of the day gives it such clarity it illuminates every individual
element that makes up this pretty pre-winter day.
A red-tailed hawk lifts itself out of the top of a tall oak tree to soar through the air
above the valley. Its graceful motion generates the mood of this day's mountain country
song like the baton of a symphony orchestra's conductor.
A kingfisher performs its roller coaster swoops over the surface of the streams and lakes
looking for food and it is keeping well enough ahead of our territorial intrusion.
Blue jays add their fleeting flashes of color to the scene along with their boisterous
calls of irritability and bother.
The soft, melodious sounds of nuthatches float up and down along the trunks of trees as
they search for food along the way.
Chickadees chit-chat incessantly as they flit nervously from one tree and bush to another.
They too, are looking for seeds that were put there over the months of late Summer into
Autumn. At the same time they play at fun as well as work at living. It seems like their
kind of day and they make the most of it.
The vista view is a panorama of hills whose shoulders end at the opening of intervening
valleys where mountain streams eagerly enter into their Mother the River to flow quietly
and serenely along the foot of the mountains making its contribution to mountain country's
majestic scenery.
Copyright © 1988, 1999 Barbara A. Smith and John G. Hipps. All rights reserved.
This essay was first published December 7, 1988 in the Free-Press Courier, Westfield, Pennsylvania.