thankful for what we sarcastically refer to as the Mighty Tualatin River, a little sluggish river, ostensibly full of enough bacteria to cause us to grow six toes on one foot, enough SSRIs to make for some happy or at least zombie fish and atm in the heat growing a fine crop of duckweed. But it is green and calming and beautiful and somehow or another osprey and herons and kingfishers survive to fish it every day. Mink and even a couple of otters call it home. Jays and hummingbirds and dragonflies patrol the waters by day and the bats take over at night. There are so many colors of green here that I would not begin to know how to describe them beyond the usual descriptions of jade and emerald and peridot. I get to spend time here every summer at my sister's house and each year I just grow more attached to this modest little body of water.