A mild fall. A week of rain and flooding that swamped our trail of bog bridges.  A day in the low 40’s.  None of this led us to anticipate the change that came this morning:  Dec. 5, 2016.  Red sunrise followed by light snow.   The white blanket of snow making the change apparent:  overnight, a thin lid of ice had closed in over the translucent eye that is Basin Pond.

In this year of firsts, ice in represents a significant threshold.  Our route  across the pond and  down the river through the marshland is — until the ice thickens or melts — now closed off.  As if our wings have been clipped, we are landlubbers once again.  The pond, so reflective of the sky and its moods, is now is more cryptic, harder to read.

Ice harvesting is part of the history of Basin Pond.  The beavers know of ice and have horded away branches in their underwater fridges, but we — we can just walk along the shores and wonder  and marvel and wait.