The Pond

At the back and north side of my house in Columbia, Maryland is a pond or small lake, perhaps a hundred feet in diameter. Filling its middle are water reeds, three or four feet tall. During the recent cold weather which got down to 4°, the reeds either moved or expanded, so that now they are only a few feet from the shore at the rear of my house. Some are actually touching the shoreline. Now, looking out from my deck at the back of my house, I see lots of reeds but almost no water.

I haven’t a clue as to how or why this happened. I much preferred looking out on water—the view was one of the reasons I bought the house a few years ago. But there’s nothing I can do about it. The property in which the pond is situated belongs not to me but to the city of Columbia. It is managed by the Columbia Association, a government organization.

I suspect that the water reeds float rather than being rooted to the bottom of the pond. That would explain how (but not why) they moved closer to the shore.

That said, it all remains a mystery to me. Maybe readers can enlighten me on water reeds and how they behave. Meanwhile, I guess I’ll just have to live with a pond full of reeds.