Photo of the Day: Ice in Pools

“Before the ice is in the pools,
      Before the skaters go,
Or any cheek at nightfall
      Is tarnished by the snow,
 
Before the fields have finished,
      Before the Christmas tree,
Wonder upon wonder
      Will arrive to me!”—American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), “XLV [Before the ice is in the pools]”
 
This afternoon, temperatures rose to just below the freezing mark—a marked change since this past Friday, when they dropped 50 degrees within a few hours (and felt worse with the wind chill factor).
 
I took the opportunity to walk around Overpeck County Park, a few miles from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. 

Though it felt more inviting to walk around, even in the half hour just before sunset, the ground still felt crunch rather than soggy—and, as seen in this photo I took, the 10 or so other walkers in the park and I have to be careful in spots, where the water from last week’s dense rainstorm had collected to form a Dickinson-style ice pool, just in time for Christmas.