Alien Pods!

   Just in time for Halloween, I found aliens!  Not really but what I found gave me the idea that this would be ideal for a movie prop.  Last week, when I moved the plants into the greenhouse, I found a wasp nest.  About a dozen or so wasps had already hatched and were buzzing about the greenhouse after I agitated them enough to make them leave the nest.  Needless to say, they were NOT happy.  Also, needless to say, I vacated the greenhouse as I have had enough stings for this year.  Thirteen different stings is far too many by my standards.  

  It was that nest that caused me to stop and ponder the likeness of the wasp nymphs and movie aliens.  A closeup photograph made the empty cells of the nest appear to be some rough terrain of a different planet.   Seeing the swollen egg cases that were ready to pop out new wasps really made the idea seem plausible. When seen "up close and personal", a simple thing like a nest can take on a new perspective.  Hmmm...I guess we can just chalk it up to more strange beings on the Bayou...or my overactive imagination.

The "Bored" Alien

    Recently, it seems that there has been a renewed interest in extraterrestrials, spaceships and other worlds.  I am beginning to think this is a grasp at relief from the troubles of our world.   When times get hard, people reach for anything they can as a diversion and, well, things are in a troubling state right now.  I would even venture to say that our country is in the biggest mess it has seen in many decades and this trend does not appear to have an end coming anytime soon.  That said, aliens and their spaceships have taken hold of people's brains...or at least, their imaginations.  THEY are coming!  And that is said with a giggle.  Matter of fact, an alien did visit the Bayou recently.  More precisely, it visited the Little Bayou House.  At least, Son identified it as an alien.  I had other thoughts. 

 

  Son and I have been doing some major renovations on the Little Bayou House.  The place has been in a dire need of improvements for some time now so I figured it was best to get started before the house fell down around us.  I get these harebrained ideas and he brings them to fruition.  Before he left for work, Mark bought a bunch of lumber which was just begging to be used.  So...I used it...or Son and I used it.  At one point, he handed me a board that he had just cut and said there was a "bored alien".  That is what I heard...he actually said there was a "board alien".  Sure enough, there was a pair of eyes staring at me from the plank.  Hmmm...while he insisted it looked like an extraterrestrial, I begged to differ.  It looked to me like a heron giving me the "evil eye" because I did not catch its supper of little mullet.  Either way, there was something looking at us from that board!  Alien...heron...who knows.  Ahh, imaginations are grand things!

Another Alien is in the House!

  Never...I repeat...NEVER leave aliens alone!  Especially when there are two aliens!  Those little green beings multiply.  Several years ago, a tiny lime green alien was found hiding in the corner of the living room.   I had no problem with his presence but, try as I might, my smalltalk did not receive a response.  I merely wanted to find out where he was from and why he decided that my living room was now his domain.  Since I received no satisfactory answers, I merely shrugged the shoulders and left him be.  I must admit that seeing a glowing figure in the corner of the living room was a bit unsettling at first but I sort of grew to like the little guy over time.  His presence soon became natural and I never questioned his existence further.  Then....

  About a year later, another tiny green alien joined the first.  Even though this one was a bit different, I assumed they knew each other and my first friend had sent for his "wife" (if aliens have wives.)  Her head was a bit different shape so I figured that was how to tell male from female.  Her head was slightly heart shaped and he had large green ears(?).  Ok, so now I had two glowing entities in the Little Bayou House. This was beginning to get a bit crowded but, whatever, if my friend was happy, then all was well.  Two tiny beings are not that bad and, well, they are quiet and unobtrusive (except for the glowing and the fact that their eyes are so black.)  I welcomed the newcomer and thought of how lucky I was to be the only household that had a pair of aliens!  Then....

  This morning, I arose before daylight to find that my aliens have been busy!  A third, even tinier, alien had appeared!  I have a family of aliens that have now taken up residence on the window ledge behind the reed blinds.  They seem to cherish the warmth of the morning sun and perhaps even gleam a bit brighter each night because of their basking!   Hopefully, this little family will not expand further and not take up too much room.  I was pondering if I should build them a tiny alien house but, then again, I have no idea what to build and they seem to be doing rather well without one.

  To be honest, I really have no idea how these little plastic, glow-in-the-dark aliens keep appearing.  Every few months, a new one starts glowing at night and I stick it on the window ledge with the others.  I am sure they are leftover toys from when my kids were little but it does seem a tad strange that I suddenly find them again.  It is always in the middle of the night and always when I am up investigating some strange noise.  Bump, Rattle, Bang!  Another alien is in the house!

Its there!

  Sometimes the most ordinary of things can strike a chord with me and a fantastical story starts to whirl around in my brain.  I wonder about this and think perhaps I should have been an author!  Or not.  Since it takes a goodly amount of skill to ever get anything published, I probably would have still been the "starving artist".  My writing skills had better be left to this feeble attempt and not to some worthy novel. Still, those things that create wondrous illusions in my head would make for fun tales.

  What with all the interest in zombies, creatures from beyond, aliens and such, I occasionally come across something on the Bayou that would fit right in with these stories!  On my walks, I see a lot of weird things.  Take, for instance, the strange "fingers" that I found trying to dig from beneath the soil.  It was just before dark when I spied the creepy hand digging its way from some grave long forgotten.  The fingers were of the most unusual color being red and obviously from something other than human since there were only three.  Try as it might this hand (and whatever was attached) never made it completely to the surface.  In reality, this "hand" was none other than a stinkhorn mushroom that had pushed its way up in the lawn.  There it was making the yard smell a lot like a rotting corpse!  Ugh!  My imagination went wild!

  Then back behind the peach orchard near the creek bed, I found some more aliens that had landed from worlds unknown.  These were exiting their pod-shaped ship when I found them.  Their long, slender forms were ghostly white and so unlike anything that I have ever seen before. I must have startled them which caused them to sit almost motionless as soon as my presence was recognized.  These aliens may have taken over our world had I not discovered their plot and put an end to it! Actually the alien ship was a magnolia pod and the recent rains had sprouted the seeds within it.  The long slender sprouts had not been able to fully form and were on the verge of decay.  The whole scene made for quite the ghostly tale!

  I guess things are all in how you see them or all in how your own brain works.  Mine sees things in a bizarre way.  Tales of mystery are always whirring away in the cogs of my mind!  Too bad about that skill thing needed to be an author!

Bump, Rattle and Bang!

  I am not one to be scared of things that go bump in the night.  As matter of fact, not too much scares me about living on the Bayou. Living in other places might make me a tad uneasy but here, I pretty much feel secure.  Like I said, bumps in the middle of the night are not frightening in the least.  Bumps, rattles and bangs, on the other hand, call for investigations.  Last night, just about midnight, a loud thump, a few rattles and a thud woke me from a sound sleep.  Hmmm?  None of those noises were familiar.  What was causing all of this ruckus?

  I eased out of bed to find the source of the noises.  I slipped through the house in total darkness.  Each room proved to be empty, each door latched and each window tightly shut.  Ms. Ez, the old Bayou Dog, slept on soundly as if nothing had created such a din. Ms. Put, the Bayou Queen, was purring on the stairs as if to reassure me that all was safe and sound.  Was I the only one that heard all of this racket?  Nothing seemed amiss downstairs so I called upstairs to Son.  "What was that noise?" My answer was a simple "I dunno."  Well, now!  I like that!  I set out to investigate further.  First, I went to the entryway....nothing.  The yard seemed calm and quiet.  The back deck seemed to be likewise. Nothing.  Well, geez!  Perhaps I dreamed the whole thing!  Back into the living room, I peered out the door to the Bay.  All seemed quiet there, too.  Oh, well.  I guess I will return to bed.  Then, I saw it!  A soft green glow shone off in the corner of the living room.  Ok.  What is that? 

  When I neared the glowing object, I realized that it was none other than an ALIEN!  Yep!  There in my living room was a little green man! He sat there with his dark black eyes just staring at me.  Oh, my!  I eased over to him and tried to make small talk.  "Well, looky at you! What are you doing here and from where did you come?"  My new found friend spoke nary a word.  He just stared blankly at me.  I must admit the little guy had a lovely green aura about him but those eyes..those black (almost hollow looking) eyes were sort of unsettling.
  

  Actually, finding an alien in my living room did not surprise me in the least.  After having three kids grow up in this house, nothing surprises me.  The alien must have been one of their toys from years ago.  The tiny, glow-in-the-dark toy probably fell out of a box earlier.  I am cleaning the craft room and boxes filled to the brim with all sorts of items are being hauled out to make space. This little guy escaped somehow and sat brightly gloating at his attempt at freedom.  No, I know this was not what made the bumps, rattles and bangs that woke me but his presence did make me giggle!  The incident made me think of a Scottish poem that Mom used to recite.

  

"From ghoulies and ghosties

And long-leggedly beasties

And things that go bump in the night, 

Good Lord, deliver us!"