Butterfly Mind

Walking on ice: a story in three pictures

Photograph: Tiny pine cones on frozen Pandapas Pond, Blacksburg, VA February 2014 by Andrea Badgley on Butterfly Mind

Photograph: walking on ice on frozen Pandapas Pond, Blacksburg, VA February 2014 by Andrea Badgley on Butterfly Mind

Photograph: Tiny pine cones in hand on frozen Pandapas Pond, Blacksburg, VA February 2014 by Andrea Badgley on Butterfly Mind

On February 1, 2014, my husband had an itch to hike the woods around Pandapas Pond. It was a sunny, 50 degree Saturday after two weeks of sub-freezing temperatures, and we had seen pictures in the paper of folks skating and ice fishing on the pond. I asked if the kids and I could ride along. When we arrived, he waved and disappeared into the forest, and our children and I wound our way down to the iced over water. College students walked across the pond’s hard shell – all the way across – and threw snowballs through sunlight. Our kids begged to go out on the ice, and all I could see was them crashing through. I was terrified. I told them to stay near the edges – the surface looked wide and treacherous, more of a lake than a pond, really, with all that shockingly cold, surely fathoms-deep water beneath a thinning sheet of cracking, melting ice. I white-knuckled my camera; I told myself, unclench your jaw. I reminded myself, Breathe, as they ran reckless, full speed, heads-back, mouths-open-in-laughter races on the sun-warmed ice; as I stepped onto pond’s slushy skin. I probably lost five years of my life that day, but our kids remember it as one of the best days of theirs.

Unknown plant, Pandapas Pond, Blacksburg, VA February 2014
Cracking? ice on Pandapas Pond, Blacksburg, VA February 2014
Walking on ice, Pandapas Pond, Blacksburg, VA February 2014

This is my entry for the weekly photo challenge: Threes

Andrea Badgley

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21 responses to “Walking on ice: a story in three pictures”

  6. Your story reminds me of the terrors I lived through daily with young children. You want them to have fun but boy, are those jaw-clenching moments tough! Nicely captured.

    • it is so scary, isn’t it? My husband keeps reminding me I can’t protect them from everything, that they have to learn some things the hard way, but that is impossible for me to accept 😀 I survived some pretty stupid stuff and so will they, I suppose. That sure doesn’t make it any easier though. Glad you liked the photos.

  9. I love this. It takes me back to the many times I watched you and your brother do things that terrified me and all I could think of is “what if something happens?” But you both survived and are better for the experience.

  10. Great photos revealing both the intensity of nature and the vulnerability of our steps.
    I’ve traveled here by way of the DP writing challenge. I enjoyed you ‘Drought and Flood’ explanation and hints. I plan to use them in hope of writing more.
    Your blog is fabulous …
    Isadora ~~~ : -)

  11. This is a really lovely post, the photos tell a wonderful story on their own, full of the magic of winter ice…enticing us with her beauty. Then there’s your own beautifully written story which is so different to where I went in my head with your photos!
    It’s so hard to let those kids of ours run free, but as you say, that’s the way we all learned, and it’s the best way. My son, who is now 20, has had an urge to climb everything from a very young age…..he now does rock climbing…..and his friends would look at me in shock and surprise when I didn’t call him down from the wall or tree he had scrambled up!