Fall turnover, alder leaves, and a clearer pond

Small, sheltered ponds on the Gig Harbor Peninsula turn over quietly. In October the surface of Park Lake lost its summer skin. Alder leaves gathered in the east coves. The water, for a few weeks, read clearer from the bank.

Fall is a good month to walk the perimeter with a notebook: where is the high-water mark this year, which trees are dying, which paths are eroding, where has reed canarygrass or English ivy tried a new foothold. Photograph more than you cut. Bring the notes to the owners before anyone hires a crew.

If you take a shoreline photograph you are willing to share, send it for the History page. The pond changes by the decade. The archive should too.