What might look like the edge of a ringed planet in deep space is actually ice in a vernal pool.

A White Oak (Quercus alba) leaf frozen in ice.

Another White Oak leaf on the surface of the ice. Or are those ripples of that same deep space?

And here, a forest of minuscule trees with limbs of frost. Or grass blades decorated with ice.

Vernal pools aren’t there all the time. They’re small, shallow, ephemeral bodies of water. A depression that is filled occasionally with rain and snow melt then dries up again. This particular one had been there dependably for what seemed like years until this past summer. Then, POOF! It was gone. Its ephemeral aspect took over. But, much to my delight it is back, providing my imagination a place to play. My camera a source of photographs.