Strange Days

I call this a pond but it’s really a wide part of a stream that flows into the Ashuelot River from Wilson Pond in Swanzey. I’ve seen many wondrous things here over the years. An odd thing I saw here recently was this painted turtle floating as if it were just floating in space. Actually it isn’t odd at all because they do it all the time. What was odd about it was how it let me be there, standing behind it when it happened. And it knew I was there. Slowly it turned to see me but the sun was setting behind me and it must have been blinded by it. It squinted its eye nearly closed and dove into the darkness. A few days later I came upon a painted turtle laying eggs. It closed its eye part way when it saw me. “Is that you, Squint?” I asked but of course she was too busy to answer any questions from me. Just the other day a spangled skimmer landed in the grass in front of me, just to the left of the water in that first shot. This was the first one I’ve seen this season. The “spangled” part…