God's In His Heaven And All's Right On The Pond

Two species were the ponds on our hundred acres. (see the previous blog). The spring fed pond was cool, hosted a variety of fauna and flora and provided the launching and landing site of our ill- fated boat. The rain pond, now deep, now shallow in response to rainfall, was muddy with temperatures dependent on the weather. On the coldest days of winter it was ice covered.

A thick layer of ice provided a surface as grand as any skating surface anywhere. There was no adult supervision of our skating (albeit without skates). We merely slid across the icy surface in our shoes.  And I do mean shoes for rare were snow boots. How glorious, how much a part of nature we felt as we slid across the ice. How delighted we felt that no nosy parent or neighbor tried to stop us from such glee.  The angels, the genies, the faeries or some other benevolent spirits surely were on duty protecting us from the vagaries of nature and our daring stupidity. We never fell through the ice. As the poet said “God’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world”.