CHAPTER 6
Monday morning, my first day at the new job, couldn’t have been more delightful. A sharp frost covered everything, the needles of the fir trees looking so much like they’d been coated with crystallised sugar I was tempted to pull some off and pop them into my mouth. A thin film of ice covered the edges of the lake but was clear of the frost so that I could see through it, like looking through a thin sheet of glass to the gently swaying fronds of pondweed and milfoil. I even spotted a water boatman rowing speedily along on his back and couldn’t help smiling as I watched the coots placing their strangely lobed greenish-grey feet delicately, in pigeon toe fashion, as they treaded carefully toward open water.
Standing for a few moments, breathing the cold, clean air into my lungs I
