I was looking for interesting ice formations down along the little brook that runs out into the marsh between RT 9 and the beach, but the water, high with snowmelt and the warm rain from the day before, was evidently just too warm, despite the well-below-freezing air. It was the December solstice light on the leaves at the bottom of the stream that caught my eye here…the rich browns, still carrying a hint of fall color…and I moved over to the stream’s edge to frame it. It is a tiny stream really…where it has dug a deep grove in the marsh I can step across it and not break my stride. Here in the shadow of the forest it is wider but I could still leap it (or could have when my legs were younger…though I might have needed a running start even then). Now, the more I look at this image the more I see of what attracted me. My focus keeps cycling between the leafy forest floor carpet underwater, and the perfect reflection of the forest trees and sky on the surface…I see the texture of the gray bark on the trees and then that dissolves into the leafy bottom and then solidifies again to trees and sky, over and over, drawing me deeper and deeper into the image. This is a “waiting room” image for sure…something to hang where people have time to be so caught between the leaves and sky that they forget that time is passing. View it as large as you can and take a moment, and you might see what I mean. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 43mm equivalent field of view. Auto with Landscape Scene mode. Processed in Photomator.