Clean water is so translucent and colourless that you would not be able to see it at all if its surface was unable to reflect the world around it. Water can be totally translucent so that you can’t see it at all, or totally impenetrable like a silvered mirror, depending on where you are and where the light source is. Mostly, rippling water does more than just pass through or reflect light, it does both at once, distorting and recreating whatever bounces off it. These glorious shapes and intricate patterns are reflections of much simpler shapes; the golden circle of the sun at dawn; a wooden mooring post in the river; the underside of a concrete bridge, and an overcast sky.