green week one :: salt marsh

For most of my childhood I lived within a stone's throw of the Great Sippewissett Marsh.  I didn't realize how great it actually is, in terms of salt marshes, until I began reading Tim Traver's Sippewissett:  Or Life on a Salt Marsh.  Although I didn't have knowledge of the importance of the the place in the realm of marine biology, there is no question about its significance to my own natural history. 

My pre-teen years were imprinted by the smells of that salt marsh, the slurping sound of bare feet mucking through its mud, the thrill of jumping into the 'black hole' carved out by the convergence of the two of the marsh's fingers, the taste of its brackish water sipped through straws fashioned from horsetails growing on the side of its feeder creeks.

Last week found me on the edge of another salt marsh.  A place that I've visited a handful of times over the past decade, but not one that I've ever really explored.  It is very different than Sippewissett in terms of climate and critters, but yet it is so familiar. 

Sitting on the dock watching the green water yesterday I could have been nine years old.  Listening to the quiet punctuated here and there by a jumping fish, the flapping wings of a nearby heron, was like hearing an echo.  With the evidence of the tides and the renewal they bring every six hours all around, it's not a wonder that a visit to a salt marsh brings me back, if even for a moment.

Comments

[emily]

your recollections give me the shivers. and i am in love with that photo.

[Sarah Jackson]

beautiful green water. what a lovely memory.

[Denise]

Nice. Sun, water, memories. Ahh.

[coastalgirl]

Your post is like nature poetry for the soul.
Salt marshes are nostalgic for me too. I would collect small bunches of sea lavender in August and we would make flower crowns for our heads and pretend we were mermaids.

[Tracy]

I feel that way about the ocean. The pacific specifically. There is something about some places, some bodies of water, I think, that fills a void.

[Jen]

Oh, I really like the way the light on the water looks like kanji. It's a beautiful shot, and paired with your memories and yesterday's experience--very Zen.

[Robin Scanlon]

Love you blog. This is my first visit. Thank you for sharing yourself in this way.

[Mom]

It is always a joy to visit your blog but oh so delicious when I read your words that hit a cord within me that makes me smile. Yes we were lucky to live near and play in the Great Sippewissett Marsh. Every child should be blessed with such an amazing place to fill days with wonder and adventure and thus create memories to hold within their hearts forever.