early spring day

 A cold day afield that somehow seemed to bring out parts of the long history of my part of Ohio. Fishing a small pond in the woods I caught five small bass that were probably just a year or two old and a few older larger bass. In these first few days of spring I fished slow using a straight worm of Vic's called a fish stick rigged with a very light weight. Even though the wind blew cold and chilly the calls of birds in the thickets and the bass in hand proved the new year was marching along if slowly. I left the pond and followed the small creek that flowed down hill to the blown out Little Miami.  In banks sheltered from the wind and exposed to the sun small wildflowers poked up thru the leaf litter. Small hardy wildflowers able to occupy small niches and micro environments. In the creek I found Ordovician fossils from over 400 million years ago. Here in southwestern Ohio is the only place you can find these rocks that date back to when Ohio was covered by a shallow sea and most of the worlds land mass was still connected into one giant continent. And then down closer to the river on a tiny rock bar in the creek I spied a rock that seemed out of place. Wow, notched corners, worked cutting edges, an arrowhead broken in half. More evidence of the rich history underfoot. This time much more recent but still possibly hundreds or even a thousand years old. My mind reels at the thought of the last man that held this in his hand...