On yesterday's walk, I went by the lake which is part of the camp property at Lutheridge. I usually make it to both the chapel and the lake during my daily walk, which is a delightful benefit of living here. On Friday morning, the lake was only frozen in places, and across the surface were chunks of ice, as if someone had scattered the contents of a cooler there.
Yesterday, the view was very different. The light dusting of snow that we had Friday afternoon left the lake looking like it was frozen solid with snow across the entire surface of the lake, although I heard gurgling sounds. I thought about the various warnings we've gotten from county officials that warned us not to walk across frozen lakes and streams, that nothing would be frozen enough to support our weight.
I've read enough 19th century novels to know the dangers of surfaces that look frozen and aren't. But all the warnings weren't enough to keep some people from walking on the lake; I saw several sets of footprints in the snow on the lake's surface. That big hole in the ice in the middle of the footprints--did someone fall in? It would have been in the very shallow part of the lake, so there wouldn't have needed to be a rescue by people lying flat on the surface to hold a branch out to the person in the lake, the way we saw in Little Women and It's a Wonderful Life. Sunday's hole was perfectly formed and didn't look like someone had stomped their way out of it and across to the shore. Hmm.
The view of the lake was so beautiful that my spouse and I returned. He was not as impressed as I was. As we talked, I realized that I've never seen a frozen lake or pond before, not in person. I lived in snowy places, such as they were, in my pre-college years, so we'd have been in suburbs, and none of them had lakes or ponds back then. We had hills for sledding, and lots of trees, but no lakes, ponds, or rivers.
We didn't have waterfalls either. My hiking friend went on a quest for frozen waterfalls yesterday, and she posted great pictures. She invited us to go along, but at the time of the invite, we thought we would be going to church across the mountains yesterday.
We made another pot of seafood stew (recipe here) and I made progress on school and internship projects. We listened to music and when the algorithm suggested we watch the Lifetime movie about the Clark sisters (a gospel group), we didn't argue. The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel was a movie that tried to do too much, but so much of what we watch doesn't try to do anything at all, so it was a good change of pace.
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