Tourne Brook

Floating boat with Gram and Gramps.

March is the perfect time for kids to slop around in puddles, intermittent streams, and small creeks.  We get filthy, soaking wet, and learn! How ice forms. How it melts. Where critters live in the deep freeze. Balance teetering on rocks. Using sticks as levers to pry up dark, dank, slimy leaves. It’s a blast!

As kids we spotted the first emerging pussy willows along streams, caught the first calls of the red-winged blackbirds heralding their return, and imagined ourselves explorers in the wild – just beyond the manicured lawns. Sometimes I do wonder why we are still alive – reenacting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” on slippery ice floes and taking the “short cut” to school over the river on the large pipe above the dam from the chip board plant to the other side.

While Winding Pathways does not advocate dangerous activities like that, we do encourage familiarizes to get outside and experience the daily wonders unfolding as spring moves north.

Our kids floated toy boats with Gram and Gramps, fished the spring waters gaining experience to fish on their own in summer, and later took up more outdoor activities as the seasons progressed.

Here is a haiku  that I’d written long ago that surfaced while I was culling old files.

“Dampness awakens.
Slow green shoots appear and grow.
Spring bursts in splendor.”

Winding Pathways folks hope you “Go outside and play!”