The Secret of Skytop Pond

I pass by the pond at Skytop Farm twice each day, on days when I'm working in town. It's a favorite local photo op, with the pretty trees that line it and the endlessly fascinating reflective properties of the water. I've photographed it and shown it to you in many different conditions:

frozen over with ice
just after the ice has melted
on a sunny blue-sky day
on solstice in the glorious breaking light of afternoon

But no matter how much it reveals, every pond keeps its secrets. If you lean close, I'll whisper one I learned this week.

Look, over there on the quiet end of the pond - to the right of the three trees whose reflections I just can't stop photographing - do you see the big, green turtle?

To the left of the big turtle is a quiet and protected spot, where a pair of geese have made a spring nest to hatch and raise their young.

The turtle is keeping the secret pretty well, but I must admit that once I learned it, I laugh each time that I go by, to see their two heads so close together: the mother goose, sitting relentlessly on the nest, and beside her the trusty turtle, protecting them and keeping watch over all the innocents of the pond.