Seasons in the Fantasy Forest

CG Jung says, "The creative mind plays with the things that it loves." In our family, one creative mind plays with prime numbers and geometrical constructions; the other plays with shapes and colours. And both of us have been intrigued by an ever-changing optical illusion that floats above us at the therapeutic pool where we've been swimming weekly for over a year.

You can share the fun. Here's how it works.

The pool 's setting is itself therapeutic -- a beautifully landscaped 20-acre property where a number of health and rehab facilities are situated . We learned recently that once upon a time, before the health care crunch, these grounds had a full-time gardener -- and it shows. The pool building itself resembles a huge greenhouse, with glassed panes on three sides. Its shape is something like a giant quonset house, with the south wall angling inward to connect to a low building wing with office and locker rooms. The straight-sided east and west walls open onto mini-courtyards. The longer south wall looks out on a groomed abundance of shrubs and huge deciduous trees.

Now here's the fascinating part. Because of the angled panes of this wall, each horizontal segment reflects whatever rests on the pool deck. When we swim, late Fridays, there are always a dozen or more multi-coloured 4-foot lengths of tubular foam (fun to wrap around yourself, like an inner tube). Remarkably, their reflections -- repeating in triplicate up the three rows of glass -- are just the size of the branches on the outdoor trees. AND this view of trees with pink/purple/yellow/blue/green "branches" changes with the seasons and the related length and light of day.

Want to join me in a visualization experiment? First, here's a section of the south wall of the pool and, outside, the bare branches of shrubs and trees. (Digression: We arrived one Friday to hear the astonishing tale of a raccoon who'd somehow entered two nights before -- via the automatic door? -- and, when accosted the next morning, quickly made its way up the vertical struts and across the horizontals to sit as remotely as possible until more or less humanely captured by a wildlife rescue person on a ladder).

Next, the main foliage shapes -- shown in grey so you can picture the variables. In spring, they're lime green; in summer, rich green; in fall, vibrant red-orange; and in winter, non-existent.

Now for some foam tubes on the pool deck. Mentally flip them upward to reflect in all three horizontal sections of the glass.

Finally, here's an expanse of pool water. Its reflections are most evident right now, in ripe summer, when they float against the sky around the treetops, looking like mystical auras. Almost more mystical is the winter view:-- By 4 pm, it's black outside. Inside, big orange overhead heat lamps have replaced the ordinary light fixtures, and the window panes reflect back tongues of orange flame dancing around the scarcely visible tree trunks.

It's all like a fabulous light show, with wonderful variations depending not only on the season, but the wind and weather conditions. Creative math minds might wish to calculate the number of variables. Creative colour/shape minds can just sit back and trip out.