It's a little hard to see but this picture is the same or almost the same location as my header only after Irene. I took this just two days ago which is what a week and a half since the great storm?



I guess for some it was nothing but our little village has been sadly devastated. I know shortly it will be all cleaned up but the boat people cannot go through the lock system as there is one that is no longer working, Lock # 11 in the Mohawk to the West of us. Some of the people who were on their way to Canada are literally stuck between locks and cannot go anywhere. Possibly for the season as I have heard, but I'm somewhat certain they will find a solution to their dilema soon. The river is still very brown but the level is back down and still falling.

Now this little guy/girl I named Irene because she was found on the sidewalk up the street from me two days after the flood and encrusted in mud. Just a baby some have said they believe she/he must be only a few days or weeks old. I was trying to save her/him but it was too weak to even eat and was barely moving. He died the next day but I was so in love with this poor thing that I wanted to honor it's short life and journey through the storm. I have the shell and am planning on using it in one of my pieces of art or jewelry. I know, it sounds sick, and maybe it is sick but I couldn't see just throwing it away in the trash and believe me I wasn't going to bury it in the mud.

Call me crazy, sick or whatever, but it's name is Irene and her shell is precious to me. I will honor this little life in some form or fashion and imortalize it.