This is my favorite time of year to watch the lake - the big transition. Each day, it moves toward the locked-down frozen silent time, and then back again. Black water, skim of wrinkled ice. Snow-and-sleet-melt makes for a cratered gray surface. A warm day puts it back to black and wet, then a sharp overnight freeze to solid clear glass.

Yesterday I stood on the dock and looked through the window of ice to that mysterious cold world that stays wet all winter. I saw movement, and my brain did that quick attempt to categorize - fish? no. Turtle? no. What....oh! It's a muskrat!

Yes. The muskrat, who lives under the ice all winter, swam beneath the thin skim. I've tried before to catch a glimpse of a muskrat under water from the canoe, but it's almost impossible - I can follow their little head making a V in the water, but then they disappear and swim so fast I can't spot them.

So for the first time, I had a crystal-clear view of a muskrat fully immersed, swimming. Another gift of the lake. Another day of transition.