Today on Monday Mysteries we look at the mysterious world of the pond behind the house we’ve been in for the past few weeks.As I’ve mentioned already, we’re  house- and cat-sitting this month  in Melbourne (thanks again to the owner, Jean, for entrusting us with her lovely home and beautiful, charming cat!). As I sat looking out the window on the pond in the back yard recently, I realized that not only does the pond have beautiful reflections in it, it’s actually a magic pond, as there are things in what seem to be reflections that you can’t see outside the pond.  It’s just like how in my puddle photos when the puddles become windows onto other worlds. With Jean’s pond, though, the view to another world is visible when you look carefully, without needing to flip the photo upside down.

Consider the following photo; note in particular the tree and its reflection:

Tree reflection in pond

But look at the reflection carefully – did you spot the building that’s in the reflection that’s not visible in real life? Here’s a look at that photo with arrows point out the building the reflection on the bottom, and where the building should have been — but isn’t! — on top:

Phantom Building with arrows

In other words,  there’s a  building that shows up in the reflection, but you can’t see it at all when looking at the “real” scene. Please note that this is the way it really looks when seen through the living room window; I haven’t done any trick photography or manipulation to get the building that “isn’t there”  so clearly “reflected” in the pond.   I mean, I didn’t do any trick photography to get this photo; while looking out the living room the scene reflected in the pond is not the same as the scene in the backyard.

Usually I only see these hidden worlds in puddles when I flip the photo upside down, but that isn’t necessary here. However, if we flip that photo upside down there are a couple of additional oddities:

1. The upside-down ducks are part of the reality in the scene, but not the reflection … and they are not real ducks (but they are really there in the yard).

2. The tree at the top that has no grass around it is a complete reflection of the tree at the bottom which is in reality is surrounded by the grass that goes up to the edge of the pond.

Lake Reflected – Flipped

Fun, eh?

But of course it’s really the magically reflected building that provides us with today’s Monday Mystery here in Melbourne.