Sea Monsters and Fog Jewels

It started out as another foggy, foggy morning..so foggy that sitting on the pier was sort of senseless. I was there only a short while before I began to feel the effects of the cold, clammy air. The everyday noises of the Bayou awakening started to sound a mite eerie..sort of like the special effects of a horror movie. I had just read last night where there were reports of another "Loch Ness" type "monster" reported this time on Lake Windemere in England. ("Nessie"gets around a lot!) I sat there this morning thinking how it would be easy to imagine something like that being in my Bayou in this fog! I can remember fishing with my dad one foggy morning and seeing something that we could not explain at the time. Our "monster" appeared right next to the boat and loomed larger than anything we had ever seen before. We could see the eyes and face of this creature as it stuck its huge head out of the water. It was not a gar or alligator..we were used to those. It was not some animal such as a otter or raccoon..much larger than those and not "furry". It seemed to be close to twelve feet long and was definitely a "sea" creature. At the time, our "monster" was a bit frightening to me simply because it was the "unknown". Dad (not one to show fear) looked at me and nonchalantly said.."Lets push in a bit closer to shore." I knew then that he did not know what we had just seen. Our "Nessie"..our "sea monster"..our unknown creature..my mind raced at what this could be. This was back before cell phone cameras so there was no way handy to photograph our critter. We did not talk much about it..it was one of those things that you just let slide in hopes that others did not think you were too batty! Then later that week, another sighting..a news crew reported that a manatee was sighted in the Back Bay! Our friend was identified! Dad and I sure felt better!

Instead of staying out on the pier, I headed around the path near the Bayou edge. It was quiet except for the distant splashing of the pelicans or an occasional cackle of a King Rail. I walked on until I came to the Persimmon tree. It was dripping with tiny droplets of water. On several branches, spider webs were strung like necklaces..my Persimmon tree was bejeweled! It always astounds me just how wonderfully adept Mother Nature is at decorating the world! No beauty queen ever had so much "bling" as my little tree!