First Frost of the Fall 2007

First Frost of the Fall 2007

Tuesday morning the North Mississippi Delta woke up to find the first frost of the fall which had settled overnight into the Mississippi Valley borne by north winds and a crystal clear night sky, stars visible all of the way to the horizon (even from downtown Clarksdale), the Moon a waning crescent falling below Venus, Old Man Owl (Great Horned Owl) calling out deep and woody resonance over the gently flowing waters from his perch on Old Woman Cypress, Emma Louise and I wandered down along the river and took the following photos later as the sun was rubbing its eyes and rising over the East bank of the Sunflower:


Can anyone identify the vegetation?



Frosting edges making the chaos more sensible




Clearish greenish water flowing slowly through town, partially fed by the new pumps sunk into the Mississippi River aquifer at the headwaters of the Sunflower, the start of a 200+ mile journey winding through the fields and forests of the Mississippi Delta, the Sunflower becoming the Big Sunflower, eventually meandering into the largest bottomland hardwood forest in the National Forest system, through some old channels of the Yazoo, and some canals dug into the delta, and then finally into its confluence with the Yazoo through the gates of Steel Bayou Control Structure.

Will this muddy water of the Mississippi Delta be pumped back over the levee into the Mississippi River (during high water on the Mississippi)? This question now sits on the desks of the President and EPA Administrator, Stephen Johnson.