During a dusty Midwestern drought, Cathy Johnson stumbled upon a cool, limpid pond in northwestern Missouri and fell in love.
Scraping together their savings, she and her late husband bought the pond and the surrounding 18 acres of land--a naturalist's playground, as she describes it.
In this richly detailed account, Johnson introduces us to the timid white-tailed deer, iridescent blue dragonflies, velvety meadows, deep, quiet old-growth woods, and steep limestone and loess hills .