Photo of the Day: Fountain, Saddle River County Park, Ridgewood NJ

Many times over the past couple of decades, I’ve circled the wild duck pond in Saddle River County Park, north of where I live in Bergen County, NJ. But until this afternoon, I had never done so while so much of the surroundings in this suburban arcadia were taken up by snow and ice.

Most of the pond, it turned out, was still frozen over. But after two days when the thermometer exceeded 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the small northern part of the water had opened up, concentrating the attention of walkers like me, in a way it never had been in the non-frigid seasons of the year, on this fountain.

So I eagerly photographed this moment in time, this promise of better things, so needed now, in this season of death, in this region and even this country.