The Sycamores along the creek . . .

("The Sycamores along the creek are noisy, rusty gates . . . ")

The temperatures last weekend never got out of the 20s (nor will they this weekend), and Gregory Creek was mostly iced over. Below a cluster of trees near a part of the stream that was shallow and fast-flowing, some rootlets hanging over the water had been hit with spray from the creek, which created rooted pendants of diamond-like ice crystals. Flocks of Starlings and Robins were passing through, stopping at a few open spots along the bank to drink or to feed.

The handwritten part of this version is a little sloppy. It should read "The sycamores along the creek are noisy, rusty gates," but it looks like "The sycamoes alony the aeek . . . " Penmanship is tricky . . . but there is a tiny, scrunched up, lowercase cursive "r" between the "o" and the "e."

"The sycamoes alony the aeek." I'll have to use that again. It sounds vaguely Scottish.