When I first looked out at the pond the other morning, I was peeved. It looked as though packing peanuts had somehow ended up floating on the pond’s surface and lodged in some of the weeds along the perimeter. Having just come through the Christmas season and wrestled with a couple of boxes full of the little styrofoam version of cockleburs, I was pre-disposed to be annoyed when I saw them. (How DO you keep them from sticking to everything, particularly fleece robes and p.j.s? I walked around looking like I was covered with carbuncles for most of Christmas morning…)
As I got closer, I saw that these weren’t styrofoam at all, but little islands of ice, left in this peculiar and wonderful pattern as the pond thawed that warm Sunday morning. Even though I had a meeting in Kansas City, an hour and a half away, I knew I had to get a photo (why I don’t routinely take my camera with me when I walk the animals, I can’t say. Every time I forget it, I see something I wish I’d photographed). So I left Bob Dog, CP and the Ace of Kittens standing by the pond’s edge wondering why The Woman had suddenly galloped away.
I shot these photos so quickly I wasn’t certain what I had because CP was making motions toward wading the pond, which at that particular moment of our lives simply would not do. But yesterday when I downloaded the images from my camera, I was happy to discover I had gotten a few shots that would convey some of the wonder.
What an awesome world.
