Thanking a Glacier

My head was boiling hot. Actually, my whole body was boiling hot. I had just cut the grass on another sultry day where the normal mammalian trait of sweating to cool the body down just wasn’t doing the trick. So the only thing TO do, was to grab my dog and head, no more than a mile from my house, to Hoxie pond. My idea of heaven is to plunge in head first when you are soooo hot and instantly be cooled. Probably your idea of heaven too. Hoxie has always felt like my own personal pool, one that conveniently needs no chlorine or daily bacteria testing. And one I magnanimously share with others. Tuck and I use the “dog” beach, which is especially lovely, for it is on the far side of the pond and never crowded. One or two other chatty dog owners, one or two other frolicking pups.

And for this grand gift of nature, I have a glacier to thank. The Laurentide glacier that came to a halt here some 20,000 years ago created the bulk of the Cape we see today. Happily for me, this glacier left several large chunks of ice that didn’t melt at first, but left deep depressions. Where those depressions intersect with the water table, you get a kettle pond, which is what Hoxie pond is. The Cape is riddled with them. It practically looks like Swiss cheese when you fly over it, and so, for many of us, the hot days are made cooler, not just by a trip to the beach, but you can finish that up with a dip in a pond and get salt and sand off.


Plus there is no grander way to bird watch, than to float on your back and watch swallows come dive bombing in after insects and watch the Osprey eye you as perhaps some weird, fresh water flounder. It amazed me, that in a space of perhaps 10 minutes, I saw more action in bird land than I had on my entire nature walk I had taken some people on earlier. Tree Swallows, the Osprey, than two Redtails being dive bombed, just like the ones at the bog I walk around, by two Kingbirds. How often I wish someone would get on that “teleporting people” invention so I could instantly bring others to see what I am seeing at the same time.

If I wanted to, not only could I cool off in the pond, but, at this particular time of year, I could wash up too. Just like taking a bath at home only here, the soap is growing on a tree. Remember, when we talked about how you could practically tell the time of the month in summer by just using your nose? Well, end of July, early August means we are in the blooming season of the Sweet Pepperbush, and what is so cool about this plant is that you can lather up, just by using its blossoms with a little water. Conveniently it grows right along the waters edge, and, on the Cape at least, is a very common shrub. It reproduces by runners so you don’t even have to feel riddled with guilt for taking its blossoms. Its flowers are on a spike and if you look carefully, you will see that it blooms from the bottom of the spike first, then moving up to the top. You can tell when the season is almost done because only a few blossoms remain on the top of the wand. The ones that are finished blooming are on their way to becoming seeds that look like peppercorns and are the reason it is called Sweet Pepperbush. Sweet because it smells so sweet.


If you find some, just strip the blooms into your hand, one or two wands are usually enough, add some water and then rub vigorously. A lovely lather forms and in no time you are squeaky clean. It’s a cool thing to show your kids or grandkids how to do. Around here, I would say you have another week or so to ferret them out and give this a try. Do be careful to look for bees when you pick them for they love it too and rubbing a bee vigorously is never a good idea.

So, thank you glacier for providing the tub, thank you nature for providing the soap and thank you God, for providing the setting to begin with, and a moment in the day to enjoy it all.