TheBanyanTree: NORTHERN LIGHTS

[NancyIee at aol.com]

I love a night rain.

"But, not roads awash," my companion commented. "Careful there. Someone's 
dashed in too fast and knocked off muffler and tailpipe there."

I slowed down and drove around the metal wreckage. An oncoming car going too 
fast sent spray over my windshield, and we heard the crunch and clang of a 
tailpipe being run over.

Traffic negotiated the next puddle like barges crossing the sea.

I still love a night rain.

I was right, for the next morning, rain long gone, it was clear and clean. 
I'm a morning person, rising at first light. My excuse is to take the dogs out, 
especially the old one who can't always hold his water. It's only an excuse. I 
love the mornings, to watch the sun rise over the Bay and the early boaters 
going out. The pelicans and egrets roosting in the mangroves choose sunrise to 
take wing, circle, and fly off to their breakfast grounds.

I once saw a flock of Albatross. I think they were Albatross. About five huge 
sea birds with long tapered wings, circling in the updrafts along the shore. 
Circling and circling, rising silently. I watched them a full fifteen minutes 
and never once saw any of the beat a wing.

"There aren't any Albatross around here," my companion said. But, I feel they 
must have been blown in by last night's storm. We sometimes get strange birds 
around for a day or two following a particularly bad storm. There aren't ay 
Canada Geese around here, either, yet we saw a small flock hunting our flooded 
lawn for frogs or something last Fall.

I walked the dogs out on the sopping lawn. The Koi came up, thinking it was 
breakfast time. They'd wait a few minutes. Big Mac, the red and white one, 
fully thirty inches long, lurked under the lily pads.

"The ducks are back," I announced to my companion when I went back to the 
house.

"There are no ducks around here."

"A pair of Mallards; must be the pair was here last Spring. They came right 
down onto the pond as if they knew it."

I took food pellets out for the Koi, and an extra handful for the ducks, who 
came right up as if they knew it would be coming.

"Nice to see you back," I said to them.

NancyLee