I’m sitting here with my blank journal on the western edge of Wall’s Pond at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, and it is a beautiful day. The morning is bright and clear with just a few high, wispy cirrus clouds that offer no obstacle to the sun which hits my face in full and dries the grassy embankment where I sit. There’s a faint breeze stirring the trees and tall grass around the pond, but otherwise the water is largely undisturbed and the place is generally quite still. The museum (which sits about 200 feet away from the southern edge of the pond) is quite empty and the only manmade sounds echo over the whole town from construction around the rotary about a half-mile away.
The pond itself (the area of which is, I estimate, about 50 yards north to south by about 30 yards east to west) is also flanked on the eastern side by two houses, on the northern edge by a small meadow, and on the western side, where I sit, by a strip of grass about 30 feet wide, behind which is a cow fence and a row of trees to separate it from the parking lot. There are a handful of picnic tables near the southwestern corner of the pond, and a bench on the north side. The pond is encircled by a ferns, grasses, and thick, low vegetation about 6-12 feet deep all the way around. Where the water is visible, it appears dark and murky. The glassy surface goes undisturbed save for tiny ripples as insects take off and land, however about 70% of the surface area is taken up by lily pads and other floating, flowering vegetation. The shadiest spots around the southwestern edge make up the bulk of the open water.
Plant life around the pond, also includes large deciduous and coniferous trees. Along the whole southern edge stand a mix of maple and pine trees that set it off from the art museum and conservation facility. The maples are in full green summer health (as all of the vegetation is – indeed there are very few dead leaves on the ground at the moment) and stand about 40-50 feet in height. The pines among them and to the southwest stand at a similar height.
After humans (who’ve left their indelible mark on this spot in the form of picnic tables, benches, fences, mower stripes on the surrounding lawn, and, of course, the museum) the most imposing animal life at Wall’s Pond are the half-dozen or so ducks who have just come out of the grasses at the edge and now prowl the northwestern corner for food. They are all a mottled brown color and range in size from 10-16 or so inches, lengthwise, some look much younger than the others and I venture to guess that they’re a family. I move closer to them, close enough to hear their feathers brush against the lily pads and their webbed feet move through the water. Occasionally, they dive, upending their bodies to get some morsel of food from below the surface. I move too close and the take off, flying about a foot above of the water to center of the pond.
Now that I’m closer to the water’s edge and the thick growth around the outside of the pond, I hear more clearly the constant din and buzz of crickets, the croak of an unseen frog, and the beating of small insect wings. Joining these hidden noisemakers are the birds; the cawing of crows in the trees, and several different chirps – all sounds that go visually unattributed for the moment. Mosquitoes, bumblebees, noseeums, and dragonflies now fly in and out of the grasses, occasionally alighting near me as I sit back down on the embankment. In this 40 minutes or so, the museum has come to life and the sounds of trucks and cars have come to drown out the insect noise. I’ll leave then, and come back in a week.