Tonight’s sunset…. Intensifying and changing moment by moment, more complicated, more breathtaking, and more intoxicating, all with passage of time.
Tonight’s sunset made me think of one of my favorite poets and poems…
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee”
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…..
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
…………….. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Savoring every sunset!
“And yet day and night meet fleetingly at twilight and dawn,” he said, lowering his voice again and narrowing his eyes and moving his head a quarter of an inch closer to hers. “And their merging sometimes affords the beholder the most enchanted moments of all the twenty four hours. A sunrise or sunset can be ablaze with brilliance and arouse all the passion, all the yearning, in the soul of the beholder.”
―
Mary Balogh,
A Summer to Remember Enchantment and Fascination waltz with me into the night…I am held captive by your beauty… I will never tire of capturing the beauty of sunsets. It’s a ritual in Florida to gather at the beach or your own special location to watch the day melt into night. Each sunset spectacularly unique. I photographed all of these from the same location in Cape Haze. (Thanks to my wonderful friend, and neighbor!)
I love Mockingbirds…that have so much spunk in a little package. They are very territorial and very protective of “their tree”. One time, I literally saw a Dr’s office entry rerouted while a news crew filmed people as they attempted to bypass the Mockingbird’s tree. I have also seen a mockingbird chase and red-tailed hawk. It remind’s me of the line ‘ah, poo..now what can a little thing like me do to a big thing like you… poo…Ha!, My money is on the little guy. When I took this picture I didn’t know the Mockingbird was in it. Pleasant surprise. I started laughing…because I know that this little guy was counting and thinking – 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8…yep I can take them on..pretty sure!
A twist on Henry David Thoreau’s quote.. I used to love escaping into our woods when growing up in rural Indiana. Still have hopes of doing that someday! I am envious of my sister and neighbor hiking the Appalachian Trail next week. They are doing it separately, but just so happens to be on the same week. Giving me a double doss of envy, it didn’t help that I just finished reading AWOL on the Appalachian Trail either 🙂 So this is my version of escape:
I will sit on my stump:
and look up with gratitude!
Princess of the Night is a night blooming Cereus! Only if you awake at dawn…do you get see her…to all others she’s already gone.
I suppose I should have known by the look she gave me that I was a little too close, to Ms. Anhinga.
Since I didn’t get the clue, from reading the sign or reading her facial expression, she resorted to an all out squawking scream. Perhaps I deserved that.
Among birds, the anhinga is the best fresh-water diver. It goes down quietly and hardly makes a ripple. It finds its food in the water. It spears fish under water with its strong bill. It eats insects, frog eggs, fish and even small alligators. If an object is too large to be swallowed at once the bird spears it on his beak. Then she comes to the surface and flips it off, catches it and lines it up for swallowing.
It spreads its wings out, because it needs to dry its feathers. Most water birds have oil glands on their backs, near their tails, and can spread the oil over their feathers to make them waterproof. But the anhinga cannot oil its feathers.
So we started out on a run not sure of what to expect, we didn’t get far… before rain started pouring down.
Shartrina 