We got to play in the river today!! YaHoo!! I LOVE the river! I like to swim and fetch my toy. And roll in stuff. Walker likes to get wet and run, run, run. He’s like a black gazelle. The Mom Person likes to explore. And throw my toy. And take pictures. And throw my toy. The trees along the bank are all losing their leaves and the river is full of pretty color. It’s the purple season — purple flowers and purple leaves and purple berries. And you thought dogs were color blind. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife. A lot of little frogs. And a fisherman up river a bit.
We’ve got this really nice book called Where the River Begins by Thomas Locker. It is filled with the most beautiful, serene paintings by Mr Locker. The story is about 2 boys who live next to a river and wonder where the river begins. So their grandfather takes them on a camping trip to see if they can find the beginning of the river. They have a nice, leisurely trek all the way up the river. It’s a companionable trip with just the 2 boys, their grandfather and their dog. And all of the natural world around them.
I don’t know where this book river is. It doesn’t look much like my river, except that it’s not very big. My river has big rocks and cliffs and thick forests along the bank. I think about swimming up river as far as I can go. But I think that it would be a long way. Sometimes in the summer our river goes dry and then we can walk up the river bed and find fossils and dinosaur tracks and other treasures. We’ve walked up a couple of miles before, but then we just turned back and went home.
Rivers are magical places. The sounds and the smells and the wildlife. I recommend a river trip for everyone. Whether to find the beginning of one or the end. To swim or to fish. To ride the rapids in a kayak or tube the slow parts. A river is full of stories.
The beginning of my river, The Paluxy River, is up there somewhere. For now I’ll just stick with my little part of it.
Thomas Locker has written and illustrated many similar books for children. He died this year and I’m glad that I got to know him a little through his work. I hope that you will check out Where the River Begins or one of his other fine books.
And Happy Drifting!
Reading With Rhythm 
That looks like fun! And the illustrations in your book are just lovely…makes an old gargoyle long for sitting on rooves, feeling the sun on his stone….
HaHa, yes that would be nice. Don’t most gargoyles sit on rooves? I don’t suppose you would enjoy the river tho.
I’d never heard of this author. Checking it out!
I hope you get to see more of his work. I think you will really like it.
What a fun place to take a dog!
It is a very dog friendly river!