This is a picture of my wife, Catherine, fetching water from the Aous River in December. In the background is the ancient arched bridge, The pride of Baieasa. In her right hand she is carrying the graceful metal pitcher known as ghiume, a beloved and indispensible utensil in the Vlach household.

Associated with water fetching is the traditional and poetic encounter of a maid and a weary, thirsty traveler, in a barren and shadeless landscape. The maid offers the exhausted traveler cold, delicious water. In the delight he experiences in quenching his terible thirst with the life-sustaining water, he regards the maid, his benefactor, as a beautiful goddess who has come to his rescue.

Picture and Logo by T. Steven Tegu