Watching the Moon Rise

  Sometimes you have to do something just for the fun of it.  Why?  Well...why not?  As usual, Mark and I took Mr. PJ, the dog, out for an evening run.  This time, PJ did run!  He was feeling rather spry for an old dog and took us by surprise when he actually ran to the pier.  He knows exactly where we are headed at this time of day.  Once there, he flopped down to enjoy the stiff breeze and watch the pelicans while Mark and I waited for the sunset.  It was not long before our attention turned from the western sky to the eastern.  The sunset was gorgeous but the moon rising was spectacular.  With that, we started photographing the moon.  Why?  Because it was there.  Even when I tired of trying to get the "perfect shot", Mark took up the camera and started snapping.

  The moon was a willing participant of all of this attention.  It reminded me of the old rhyme "I see the moon and the moon sees me!  God bless the moon and God bless me!"    I remember sitting on the old screened porch and hearing my grandmother recite that each time the moon would rise over the pines.  I miss those days.  I miss the screened porch, the old painted rocking chairs, Grandmother and our time together.  On Saturday nights, I would go to spend the night at my grandparents' house and Grandmother and I would sit on the porch waiting for Granddaddy to come home from his meetings.  She and I would sing, watch for the moon and wait until we heard the "People Watchers" fly in to roost in the hanging ferns. "People Watchers" were fledgling screech owls that came back to the fern each night.  The parent owls had decided the fern was a great place to have a brood of little ones and had hollowed out a nest in the bottom of the large fern basket.  What an experience is was for a small girl to witness those little owls poking their heads out of the bottom of the fern!  Even after the owls "flew the coop" and were on their own, they often came back to the fern to visit Grandmother.

  Tonight's moon was perfect in so many ways.  Not only was it incredibly beautiful, it made Mark and me linger a bit longer on the pier than usual.  That time was spent reminiscing of old times.  It also brought back sweet memories of my childhood, my grandparents and Saturday night sleepovers.  I figure that was just about as perfect of an evening as one can get.