I can see clearly now....nope, not really!

 As I age, I have found that the eyesight is something that starts to fade without warning.  I do rather fine seeing things in a distance but the vision nearby is slowing becoming quite blurry. The reading glasses that I use increasingly more each day are just not enough.  My artwork will come to a screeching halt if something is not remedied quickly. Like I said, I can see pretty good if something is at a distance. Sometimes, I need a bit of help if what I see is, say, across the Bayou or on the other side of the Bay but overall, that has not presented a problem.  It is that stuff within arm's reach that gives me trouble!

  While out roaming about behind the canebrake, I spied something white across the Bayou.  At first glance, I thought perhaps an egret was roosting in one of the old Black Gum trees but then I realized that it would be one rather squatty egret!  The thing was short and wide!  I pushed back a few limbs to get a better view and then I had to start laughing at my huge mistake.  That was no egret!  Why, that was not even a bird at all!  Once all of the obstructions were pushed aside, I could clearly see that my "bird" was none other than a large shelf mushroom.  It was protruding from the tree at about twenty-five feet in the air.  The tree had been damaged years ago by a hurricane and now the fungus was hastening its demise.  It will not be long before the tree will crash down into the Bayou and become just another thing of the past.  Most of the trees in the back of the Bayou have been damaged and will soon be falling.  New ones are already springing up to take the old ones' places but it does make me sad.  I like my trees.  Every one of them is a part of the Bayou life and will be missed.  This one is so far on the other side of the marsh that it will lay where it falls.  If it was closer, we would use it for firewood come this winter.  As it is, there will be no retrieving it.

  My thinking the fungus was an egret makes me realize that something must be done about the eyesight.  Although I could see the fungus all away across the Bayou, it made me wonder just what I was missing up close.  Would I even see a moccasin underfoot while I was staring at the beautiful sight across the marsh?   I can see (pun intended) a visit to the eye doctor in my very near future!