I learned today that it is in fact Blog Action Day. And the theme this year is “the environment” — not far off our usual fare.

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Well, the water levels are low around here these days. Just take a look at the creek:

While it hasn’t quite run dry, it’s been reduced to a scant trickle. The once healthy flow has been replaced by stagnant pools and bare rock. For comparison’s sake, I’ll show you an image of the same stretch that was taken back in November of 2006, which looks significantly moister:

Seems to me that the difference is quite clear! Here’s another comparison between now and then — last year there was a good flow beneath the bridge:

While this year things look a little different:

I’m not sure if this is a widespread problem, however… you’d have to ask our friends at the Canadian Hydrographic Service about that. But I’m finding this local aridity to be a bit of a drag… do I depend on the creek for bloggable material, you might wonder? Well, yes, I would say, yes I do — over the years it has been the subject of many a post. Admittedly, I can now walk up the creekbed (a new experience), thereby traversing on foot paths only accessible in the past via canoe (or snowshoe).

As it turned out, this change in the water table proved fortuitous; it was while on a pleasant stroll up the creek just the other day that I discovered something small but promising — which I took back home, cleaned off, and now present to (taking full advantage of the power of optics):

Well, I thought that a magnified view might clear things up a little but it appears to be quite useless. Here’s a proper closeup:

“Yes, but it’s just a rock,” you say. Right, but see those shiny bits on that otherwise benign piece of quartz? I seem to have (literally) struck gold, right in our little creek. So for the rest of the week I’ll be out panning… and all going well the next post on this old blogthing will be from Vegas!