Meet my Kid

This past Saturday Karsen, Mary, Zoo and I headed out 40 miles east of here to my friend Jeff Botz's farm house in the country near Marshville NC. We had a plan to deliver a few pounds of ripe tomatoes and then go down to Richardson Creek for an exploration. After passing off the reds we walked around the old white house a bit which included some time searching for wild life on the shore of the front yard moss covered pond. Out in the back under his house Ms. Arcen used the head lamp to try and see the new kittens. No luck. Then we went down to the Richardson Creek Bridge on Sugar & Wine Rd and followed the descending trail to the creek's edge. Jeff, the dogs and I started our walk up stream while Ms. Arcen chose to swim her way. It was a fun time full of discovery for the kid who was seeing fish and crayfish up close and personal with the aid of her goggles.

Here is Karsen and her foreshortened chinny chin chin. As we moved against the light current the dogs followed and played. Zoo the naive husky has been to the water before but this was her first creek hike. At one point she uncovered what I assume was a crayfish that must have bit her on the nose or foot because she shot out of the water with a yelp that made me laugh so hard that I accidentally scared her to the creek bank.

Mary all smiles and enjoying the cool water. Karsen leads Himalayan Photographer Jeff Botz on up the creek without a paddle. Karsen gave specific instruction before her long against current swim that Jeff and I were not to get ahead of her and mess up the water's clarity. In this image if you look closely you can see some little fish and tadpoles surrounding the kid's legs. Not sure what Zoo is looking at but I do know that she was having a splendid time of it. I made a few portraits of Karsen on the rock while Jeff told me about light and shadow on the subject's face. After some more swimming at this spot we decided to turn around and head on down stream back to the bridge. This swimming hole was so deep that I decided to go in the cool water

After the final swim and almost 2 hours on the creek we climbed back out to the car and drove to the first country produce stand we came to on HWY218. We country lunched on peanuts, bananas, peaches and a Granny Smith Apple.

If you are a new/old friend that just recently started looking at my B-log and are interested in Ms. Arcen specific stories I have posted a list of some of her adventures on the right hand side at the bottom. The list goes back to November 2007 when I started blogging.