I spent part of my childhood, age 3 to 10,  in Texas. Fort Worth area, to be more specific. I remember going on fishing exhibitions with my parents and siblings and the creeks in Texas, which they called rivers, were shallow enough for small children to go wading. I don’t recall them being very wide either.

But here, in Virginia, those water ways are much more varied. In the western part of the state, a creek is very narrow and tends to bubble along down a hill. Once it reaches the bottom of the valley and is wide enough and deep enough to navigate by boat (or canoe) it is generally considered a river.

In the eastern part of the state a creek may be wider than you can throw a rock across and can certainly be deep enough to navigate by boat (sometimes even by sailboat).

Betts Mill Creek is like that. Wide and deep. I think it is a creek because it is fed by many natural swales  and a few natural ground water springs that drain off the land surrounding it. Betts Mill Creek is also tidal and as such, is also brackish.  It has many areas of wetland with swamp grasses and other stuff that wildlife love. It’s sort of a half and half kind of environment.

There are many places like this in the Northern Neck. Another, that is open to the public is Belle Isle State Park. If you have never seen or visited such a place, this is a good location with lots of views of the marsh as well as open waterways.

Here is the other small (5X7″) plein air painting I did on Thursday, looking up into one of the creeks there from their boat launch dock area.

The white sticks poking up indicate where someone has a rented an oyster bed and that sign is letting boaters know to make no wake. I did sign this later, after I took the picture. In any case, it is for sale here.

Here was my view from the easel: