Hans Brinker; or, the Frozen Pool
Yes, the pool did freeze over - the night after it snowed last week, Thursday, and it’s been frozen ever since. It did snow a little bit more yesterday, but it was such a damp snow and intermixed with periods of rain or sleet, that I didn’t get a clean white sheet like I wanted. It still looks cool, though - the surface is “frosted” and we’ve been throwing snowballs over the fence and they’re still there, sitting on the ice. It’s thick, too, apparently, because - I kid you not - an animal crossed the ice last night!!!
I woke up this morning and looked outside first thing, taking note of the weather. In spite of yesterday’s slush-fest, white patches still remain and this morning we have fog. I looked down at the pool and noticed where the snowballs mostly landed - in the middle near the deep end. Then I noticed some sort of track crossing the shallow end. I thought, it almost looks like an animal crossed the pool…
Then I looked at the steps leading up to the pool enclosure, which still have white snow on them, and there were clear, crisp paw-prints leading up to the fence and over to the edge of the pool. I think it was a raccoon or something. I wonder if the little feller did it on a dare or if he had some other motive? (No food in the pool area, that’s one of the rules.)
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
[…] A few weeks ago, from our bedroom window, we observed an ambitious raccoon climbing in the cherry tree. I was very surprised when I saw a large blurry animal (I was not wearing my glasses) and, since it was way too big to be a squirrel, my first impulse was that it was a cat. Nope… I could vaguely discern a very stripy tail and BN, with his superior vision, confirmed that yes, it was indeed a raccoon. Maybe it was that extreme-sports raccoon that braved the frozen pool this winter. It’s crazy how high that little guy climbed, since he was above our second floor window! I didn’t even know raccoons could climb trees. And it was full daylight. […]
January 28th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
[…] First, a little background information: It’s been really, really cold here for a few weeks - temps in the low 20’s at night and dry, clear, bitingly cold days. I’m always watching our pool, we have a direct view of it out front, hoping it will first of all freeze completely over and then it will snow right on top, making a smooth, pretty white pool instead of the ugly green swamp full of dead leaves that we get to look at 8 months out of the year. This is the closest we’ve gotten so far: […]