To Capture A Ghost!

  It never fails that folks who claim to have captured a ghost, Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster or Elvis on film always present a very blurry photo.  In the picture, the "proof" is obscure, to say the least.  Most of the time, it is downright difficult to even distinguish anything in the photograph.  Hey!  I am good at that type photography!  A lot of my photos are blurry, distorted and hard to decipher.  I figure that I should be famous by now!

  Actually, there are things on the Bayou that are unexplainable.  Sights and sounds during the wee hours of the morning can send chills up the spine.  Couple these with a good old fashioned tale and things can get pretty eerie!  Now, I am not saying there are things out there but I am sure not saying that there aren't.  Lets just leave it at that.  

  There are tales that at some point in history this very area was a not so savory place to be.  The Bayou was known to be home of a good many large alligators that left little evidence if a "body" needed to disappear without a trace.  Folklore says that the bayous are all haunted because of such transgressions.  Personally, I have yet to come across any evidence that proves or disproves the accounts but one never knows.  Then...back to the photography skills...a photo taken this morning may be "proof"!  A "ghost" appeared in my photograph!  I was taking pictures of the sunlight playing on a rising mist covering the marsh and somehow captured my apparition!  The ghost is in one photo and not the next!  Where did it go???  

  To be honest, the wispiness of the low lying fog can appear to be many things.  This is what brings tales of Will-o-the-wisps, swamp ghosts and water spirits.  The early morning mist carried by a soft breeze can conjure all sorts of mystical thoughts. (We won't mention that a cloud blocked the sun's rays at an opportune time making the marsh a lot darker!)  My "Ghost of the Bayou" needs a believable tale to go with it.  Perhaps, this shall become the basis for yet another Clue Hunt on the Bayou!  Then again....maybe it really was a ghost!

Fog, Cobwebs and Life

  Early this morning, a heavy fog blanketed the Bayou.  My steps were softly muffled by the wet leaves and a certain stillness engulfed the area.  I was cut off from the "civilized" (and I use the word lightly there) world and was left in the wild for a bit.  It is always exhilarating at times like this.  The pea-soup thick fog made it difficult to see more than a few feet in front of me which always is a bit of a hair raising moment.  You get this feeling that all eyes are watching your every move.  To be honest, foggy mornings are my favorite time to hike.  The critters of the Bayou are out and about as they are concealed as well.  

  Of all the beauty that does surround me on these hikes, I think the spiderwebs are perhaps a favorite.  In the heavy fog, they become jewel-laden adornments for the tree branches or reeds.  This morning, there were hundreds of cobwebs draped among the limbs.  As I photographed some webs, a thought of how there is a similarity between the spiderwebs and life.  What seems simple at first sight, is actually more complex when you really began to study it.  The creation of the web takes time to perfect as does our own attempt to make our way in this old world.  Rush it and it becomes a mess.  One rash move can cause everything to come crashing down around us.  Even a small disturbance can have a ripple effect that makes things become discombobulated. 

  The similarity does not end with the trials that can create a mess. The spider does not give up when her web is torn by an intruder or sags due to water droplets.  She merely takes it down and rebuilds it to be even better.  In life, as with the spiderweb, to make things right again, you learn, rebuild and make things stronger than before.  That persistence to carry on is what makes things worth the effort.  Seeing the beauty that is created (and often recreated) gives us the desire to push forward and be better than before. Just like the spider spinning her elaborate web, we are creating our intricate, beautiful life.  It pays to do things calmly and rationally no matter how many times we have to redo them.  Fog. cobwebs and life...they all make you think.

Another Magical Morn on the Bayou

  Whenever I mention that I live on a Bayou to anyone who does not know me, they immediately come up with some pretty wild thoughts about life here.  Some folks are frightened of the alligators, snakes and other wild critters that roam the marsh and woods.  Others think I am some sort of swamp witch that can create zombies, read palms and live solely on grub worms that I dig from the mud.  I warn those who fear the critters to watch their step but instead of being fearful, they just need to be respectful.  If you respect a critter's right to be here, then usually there are no problems.  As for the other folks, no....just no.

  I do agree, however, that the Bayou is a pretty magical and mystical place.  Things can happen here that do not anywhere else in the world but, at the same time, that can be said about any place.  What happens in a given spot is special to that spot and to the person observing it.  It is all a matter of how you see things.  Me?  I prefer to find the magic in life, in general.  So many folks depend on things, people or events to exhilirate them but just living is enough if you have insight to see that is all it takes.  

  The Bayou made its magic evident this morning.  A slight cloud cover kept the sun from casting clear, sharp images.  That, combined with a light fog wisping up over the marsh, was enough to coax the wheels of imagination into a soft spin.  All sorts of wild ideas can be conjured when the wind is right!  Tales of swamp critters, will-o-the-wisps and pirate treasure whirl about the brain dusting down the cobwebs that linger from an inactive imagination.  That, my friends, is part of the magic of the Bayou.

Hauntingly Beautiful

  Words like "hauntingly beautiful", "chilly", "eerie" were used to describe photographs of the sunrise over the Bayou this morning.  While I am not sure of the chilly or eerie, the hauntingly beautiful pretty much hits the nail on the head.  The sunrise was just that.  I awoke before dawn, made coffee and stepped onto the back porch to enjoy the peace and quiet.  A heavy fog shrouded much of the hillside and thick clouds raced overhead.  Those clouds parted for a moment and gave me a glimpse of the rising sun.  Wow!  It was time to hurry down to the pier.

  Once there, the sunrise did not disappoint.  Between the fog and cloud cover, the brilliance of the sun was reduced a great deal making it look more like a full moon rising on the horizon.  Darkness still lingered even though the sun was rather high over the pines.  Hauntingly beautiful.  I could not have said it better.  Thanks, Ann, for putting the beauty into words.  

Mother Nature and Foggy Mornings

  Walking around on a foggy morning lets one think about many things.  Pondering seems to be one of those things that I do best.  I ponder...I may not know the answers to what I am pondering...but I ponder.  The absence of a "view" around me keeps the mind thinking instead of just peering at things.  One of the things I reflected on during my most recent foggy hike was water.  Water...that wonderful, life-giving substance that is all important.  Since our bodies are made up of about 60% water, it stands to reason that without it, life would cease.  Water is in practically everything around us.  Without it, Earth would be a barren wasteland. Then again, since water is never really "used up", we are sitting pretty good...quantity wise but maybe not quality wise.  Think about it.  Water is basically always recycled even if we don't really do our job of conserving it.  The stuff is in a constant flow between the rivers, oceans, humans, animals, plants...it never stops.  Dump water on the ground and it soaks into the soil, is taken up by plants or filters through and makes its way to underground "rivers" (hopefully as pure water again) only to be pumped back up to be used again.  Leave it sit in an open container and it evaporates into the air where it accumulates only to be rained back down upon us.  It passes through us, it passes through plants, it passes through animals to be filtered by the soil and sand, purified and reused.

  While thinking this, I came across one of the peach trees that had droplets of water dangling beneath each limb.  The moisture from the heavy fog had accumulated to form droplets on any surface available.  What is not absorbed by the tree will soon become a large enough droplet that it will fall to the ground.  The cycle would start all over again.  The water may change a bit in its journey but it is always there.  

  Don't get me wrong.  This does not mean that we should be careless and overuse or abuse our water.  While the water, itself, will still be around, being clean, usable water is a different thing.  That is where the problem arises.  Too many folks have no qualms about dumping toxins into our rivers and oceans.  They do not think of the runoff from their pristine lawns, busy factories and even kitchen sinks.  What we dump into the water takes time to remove.  Mother Nature can only do so much and to hurry her is ridiculous!  Filtering water through sand can take years upon years.  Pollute the water we have at our disposal and trouble begins.  Duh!  It makes more sense just to take precautions before doing something stupid.  Don't ire Mother Nature with your lackadaisical attitude toward keeping our water clean!!  Use a bit of commonsense! Mother Nature will appreciate it...and so will every living thing on Earth!

  Yeah, I ponder a lot of things while out hiking on foggy, foggy mornings.  Some good...some bad...but I ponder just the same.  Most of the time, however, my thoughts mean diddlysquat to anyone else but I just thought I would throw this one out there for anyone interested.  






 

Fogginess

  Its a funny thing about fog.  Sometimes, it can almost feel like a blanket that is blocking out the world.  A body can feel the solitude as if it was a cloak upon the shoulders.  Times like this can give you the idea that the fog is sort of a protective device as it hides you from turmoil and allows your small world to be one of peace.  This cloak of serenity is how I feel sometimes as I sit on the pier completely enveloped by the mist.  The closeness brings realization of just how small my little world is.  The Bayou has, more or less, become my entire reign...there is nothing beyond the wall of mist that hides the outside world.  

  Then there is an eerie sensation that fog can also be hiding some evil entity.  That very same cloak that offers protection can shroud an ever-watching being that is just beyond view.  With this sensation, one can literally "feel" the eyes as they watch your every move.  The eeriness creeps up behind you as you sit in solitude and starts to slowly wrap around you.  It pulls you into the mist and you become one with it until your body disappears between the thick cloud.  No one else is around.  No one to hear you call out for help.  No one to seek out your presence.  You are alone...you and the fog are in a constant battle.  It is times like this that shivers tingle up and down the spine.  A tightness settles in the throat which feels like fingers grasping...always grasping.  The security of the Little Bayou House, though only a few hundred feet, feels as if it is miles away.  

  It is weird how one weather phenomenon can feel so very different depending merely upon the imagination.  Thoughts are usually the only things that seize control and cause us to panic or bring peace.  Somewhere deep within the corners of our brains, there is a small nook that holds a variety of possibilities.  Our outcome depends solely upon how we react to what is hidden in that crevice.  The thick fog that hides our being also hides our future.  It is entirely up to each one of us to make the first step towards reality...towards being...towards truth.  It is all within our grasp if we would only reach out for it.

Keeping Watch!

I arose early the other morn...far too early to actually be out on the pier but I headed that way regardless.  The sun had not even begun to brighten the eastern sky with its usual reds and oranges.  Ms. Ez and I carefully made our way down the board path and onto the pier itself.  There, the moon over the water brightened things up a bit.  I could hear the splish-splash of mullet as they journeyed from the shallows out to deeper water.  Thousands of the fish were around the pier and under the light of the neighboring pier.  After a bit, the sky started to get a telltale glow and I knew soon the sun would be popping up over the horizon.  The coolness of the morn had laid a thin, wispy blanket of fog over the marsh.  A slight north wind was sending this over the Bay in low, feathery traces.

  I watched to water.  The mullet jumping left ripples but other than that it was calm.  Except in one place!  About halfway to the mouth of the Bayou, I could see some strange shape in the water.  It was sort of undulating up and down.  At first glance, I presumed this was an otter but I was soon dealt a blow of utter disgust.  Once the sun rose enough for me to identify the unknown object, I was purely aggravated at humanity!  There floating near my Bayou was an old tire!  How dare someone toss such trash in the water!  I was mad!  Without a boat, there was no way for me to reach this junk to remove it from the water before it sank to the bottom.  Things like this do so ruin an otherwise idyllic morning. My morning had turned from simple and beautiful to frustrating in a matter of minutes.

I turned to Ez and told her that we were heading back to the Little Bayou House.  It sickened me to see the old tire bobbing along the shoreline.  It was then that I saw a friend!  Across the way to my brother's pier, I could see a Belted Kingfisher eyeing my every move.  I suppose he was in hopes that I would catch a few minnows for his breakfast but this morn there were none to be found.  He swooped down and alit near me on the pier post and let out such a ruckus!  Ms. Ez leapt up and started to bark!  She knows better than to disturb the birds but for some reason the Kingfisher irritated her.  The bird took off to sit upon the tall antenna on one of my brother's boats.  There he sat..glaring at the two of us!  He glared at me for not serving him breakfast and at Ms. Ez for her noisy greeting!

I bid the mullet and the Kingfisher a sweet goodbye and headed up the hillside.  It was time for breakfast and a good, hot mug of coffee!