Meeting the little turtle

Trail Wood #48 Earl Plato
Writer’s note: A week before Spring’s arrival Marcy Woods pond is still covered with ice. Ed Teale takes us for a walk along the ice free edges. Of his Trail Wood pond in the first full week of spring. Join us. “ Just as I start on again I am halted by a movement almost directly below me. A small painted turtle about the size of my palm comes swimming slowly in and out among the algae clouds. Its body is clean, its colours brilliant. Every part of its shell seems burnished. Even its claws shine. I can rarely recall seeing so beautiful a painted turtle. It is the only sign of animal life I see. I am observing its first swimming after so many months of torpid activity.