Glinting in Blue

  Here lately, I cannot sleep past about 4am.  I am up, coffee brewed and ready to start the day.  I figure I might as well make use of the time if I am going to be awake so there is not much use in tossing and turning trying to go back to sleep. Just get up and get going.  Daybreak is one of my favorite times anyway so a hike is always in order.  Meandering about the hillside goes slowly since the old dog, Mr. PJ, cannot keep up the pace.  At one point this morning, the old dog needed a rest so while he sat, I photographed how the sun played on the leaves and created shadow puppets of weird shapes.  

  Just as the old dog was about ready to continue our walk, I noticed how the sun was shimmering on the bottle tree.   The bottles were aglow with the sunbeams!  This makeshift bottle tree was a clue hunt prop from several years ago.  The Annual Clue Hunt on the Bayou that year had a theme of Deep South Legends and so a bottle tree was a necessary addition.  It has become sort of a quirky part of the yard now and it would seem odd to remove it.  In reality, with today's light show, it occurred to me that perhaps I should expand the "limbs" on the tree and add a few different colored bottles.   While the blues are gorgeous, if there were a few more colors sparkling with the sunbeams, it would add another magical touch to the Bayou.

  For those who are not familiar with bottle trees, they are somewhat a custom down here in the Deep South.  The idea behind the "tree" dates back hundreds of years.  Empty bottles are stuck on the small branches of a dead tree or, nowadays, on a wire "tree".  The idea is that spirits are attracted to the colored glass and soon find their way into the bottles.  There, the spirits become trapped during the night and are destroyed by the morning sun.  According to legend, the spirits are most attracted to the cobalt blue glass but, in a pinch, any color will suffice.  

  Like I said, my bottle tree began as a clue hunt prop but has now become part of the mystical, magical existence of the Bayou itself.  I think it is probably here to stay.

The Bottle Captured the Sun

  Some days you just have to shirk your chores and take a hike.  I have been sanding, painting and generally redoing the entire living room for the past three weeks and it seems the job is getting bigger and bigger.  One thing leads to another and now it seems there is nary an end in sight.  So, the best thing to do is walk away for a bit.  The old dog and I hiked far down into the creek and then back around the woods for a good couple of hours. He had to stop several times for a rest but that was fine by me as it gave me time to photograph whatever caught my eye at the moment.   The sun was starting to slide down behind the pines before we headed back to the Little Bayou House.  With a chill in the air, he was happy to be close to his warm, cozy bed.  He trotted off to sit near the steps as I had to take just one more picture!

  Years ago for the "Clue Hunt on the Bayou" (our annual fun time in October), there was a need for a bottle tree.  This was an easy prop to erect so it was stuck down in the front yard.  Now, several years later, the bottle tree is still in its place.  That is not so spectacular in itself but the way the late afternoon sun was gleaming through the blue bottles was quite striking even though it was never meant to be a thing of beauty.  It was nothing more than a long forgotten clue hunt prop.

  It is funny how something that you see every day of your life can take on a new appearance just because of the lighting.  That old saying about being in the right place at the right time is true.  It takes a special moment to see a mundane object in an whole different way.   My bottle tree became mesmerizing purely by happenstance.  This evening, it was sort of pretty in a weird way.  Tomorrow, the bottle tree will, once again, become something that I should have removed long ago.

You Never Know When You Might Find A Friend!

  Making sure the garden stays moist is a chore that appeals to me. Dragging the water hose around the garden and giving each plant a nice drink seems to be refreshing to me also.  I can only imagine how the plants feel!  While I was out tending the flora, the fauna needed a bit of assistance as well. The birdbath was bone dry.  Since it is further down the hill than where the hose will reach, a jug of water was toted.  As I headed out the gate, a bright idea struck me.  Why not replace the bottles on the bottle tree?  Son had pulled the bottles during one particularly windy storm.  He figured that there was no need in having a bottle slung into a window.  With a water jug in one hand and three of the many long-necked bottles in the other, I headed down the hillside.  It was then that I felt the familiar pitter-patter of little feet on my arm. Oh, geez!  A critter must have been inside of one of the bottles and was now making an escape right up my arm!  Looking down, I breathed as sigh of relief.  My critter was nothing more than a baby praying mantis!  

  Once I reached the bottle tree stand, I stopped long enough to set the bottles on the ground and let my new little friend disembark onto the post.  I figured it would be long gone by the time I returned from filling the birdbath.  I was in for a happy surprise when I returned.  The mantis was still on the post.  It had climbed up to the tiptop and then onto an osprey feather that I had found and jabbed into the post.  The tiny critter sat proudly on its new home.

  The mantis was busy while I replaced the blue bottles on the tree.  It caught a spider and was munching down on it.  Ok....this was a good chance to take a picture to prove just how good it is to have a mantis friend!  Not that I have anything against spiders (even though I can fully attest at how their bites hurt!), but just having the mantis eating bugs made a point.  They are excellent bug catchers and are not one bit persnickety about the type they eat.  Spiders, stinkbugs, gnats, mosquitoes, cabbage moths are all on the menu for a mantis!  Finding this critter made my day much happier.  Knowing it resides in the garden makes life a bit easier.  So....water hoses, bottle trees, birdbaths and a praying mantis filled my day!