Dry Crossing

Moved down the front steps, using the overhanging box hedge to keep the drizzle off my kit. Five paces along the brick path, runoff had gathered in a sunken flagstone, cutting off the advance toward the garden gate. Spotted a weathered wooden clothes peg caught in the grass border. Stepped on the metal wire spring with my boot heel until the tension snapped loose, separating the two pine slats. Laid them end-to-end across the narrowest gap in the pooled water. Took two measured strides across the timber without slipping. I cleared the obstacle and set up watch beneath the rim of an overturned stoneware planter.