TheBanyanTree: Back2Back Bella Lunas

[NancyIee at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/8/06 1:41:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
redd_clay at bellsouth.net writes:
Venue:   the deck

Environment:  cool, an occasional light breeze, enough light to thread a 
needle outside at 9:30 pm
Venue here: a puddled gravel driveway, several hundred feet long, winding 
through palmetto and pines..

Environment: walking the dogs down the driveway, stone dark at 8:30 P.M., 
just after a cloudburst. Thunder rumbling in the distance. An owl nearby, hooting 
to another at the other end of the woods. Dark clouds parting, the moon 
making silver linings.

I watched the same moon.  I actually watched it t wice this night. Once when 
it rose, huge and golden just beyond the pasture, where the pine trees were 
silhouetted in the light. The veils of Spanish Moss hanging from the branches 
were as faint as smoke in the light breeze.Then, it was gone as the rains came. 
I waited until there was a pause to go out.

The dogs cared for nothing but the smells and rustlings in the wet grass as 
we negotiated the puddles. I listened, not only to the owl conversation, but to 
the traffic on the highway a mile away, right down to a deep "thump-thump" 
from someone's car radio going full blast bass.

The Sandhill Cranes, out in the tall grass of the pasture, sounded once or 
twice, probably disturbed by a restless horse or roaming cat. Their young are 
teenagers now, as tall as the parents, their sound a treble termelo.

There was a peace out there, a pause in Time. Nothing to think about but the 
night, the moon, and the wet sand in  my shoes.

Came the whispered "lap-lap-lap" oif one of the dogs drinking from a puddle, 
and a sniff-fest as they came upon a fat toad. Each dog left a noseprint on 
the cold amphibian, who then lurched away into darkness like a drunk, unharmed.

The moonlight created pale shadows under  the pines and oaks. The moon, 
itself, was replicated in each sparkling puddle. Half a dozen moons, some shattered 
when the dogs ran and splashed through the water. It was not too dark, our 
way being lighted by a moon in every puddle along the way. Until the clouds came 
again, dark and heavy.The moon pulled back under the heavy cover and was 
gone. Pale lightning lanced through the clouds, and it started to rain again. The 
dogs and I raced back to the house, just in time for the next downpour.




NancyLee