The pool in the glen

I've always regarded this pool with a degree of suspicion. Until the relatively recent harvesting of the forest behind it, the water appeared a sinister green colour and the shadow cast by the trees meant no sunlight ever got to it. I had a horror of seeing one of my children disappear into it in an adventurous moment. This afternoon in the rain - you can see the rings from the drops on the surface - I thought it looked rather like a shell-hole on the Western Front, only with vegetation undestroyed by artillery. In fact, there are so many different details - catkins, rose hips, rushes, last year's bracken - that it could almost be beautiful.

I still find it sinister, however - and the sluggish outlet flow which emerges far below the road is the strangest ginger-brown colour. And I have no idea how deep it is ...