And Then It Was Gone...

   Since hurricane season, the windows of the Little Bayou House still wear their storm covers.  One thing or another has gotten in the way of removing and storing the panels.  For the past month, it felt sort of like living in a box or greenhouse.  It was hot and I could not see out through the panels.  Light filtered through but the view is blocked.  I shrugged it off and thought it really did not matter if they stayed up all winter. The panels would block a lot of the winter's chill that blows in off of the water.  It was all good.

  Then, today, I realized that I do care!  The old wood-burning cookstove has been chugging away with the cold front that moved in last night.  The fire feels good but keeping it stoked is just an added chore.  Late this afternoon, I made quick dash out for another armload of firewood.  It only takes a moment since the woodpile is nearby so I left the paneled door that covers the french doors open.  I dashed out and then back again.  I was just in time to see the lightshow taking place on the floor.  Throwing the wood in the bin, I grabbed the camera to snap a photo of this beautiful sight!  Then, as quickly as it appeared, the colors faded and were gone.  

  I miss seeing the rainbows filling the room.  With the windows and doors covered, it is blah in here.  Do I dare ask Son to remove and store the panels while he is in the midst of rebuilding the shelves in the dining room just so I can have rainbows dancing every afternoon?   Nah...better wait until he has a free day.   And...just my luck, once they are down we will have a winter storm with hurricane force winds.  Maybe I should just move the prisms and crystals to a new location.  Still, it was exciting to see them today after such a dreary few days.

Cold and Colorful!

   Yesterday was gray.  The sun never made even an attempt to show its face.  We had a winter storm pass through with all the trimmings.  The day started cold, ended cold and had cold in between.  Sleet was the precipitation that came with the storm so a nice coating of ice ruled.  The day was gray...just gray.

  Today, however, started cold with the temperatures in the teens but it did not matter.  Mr. Sun was in all his glory!  The bright sunrays chased away thoughts of cold even though the thermometer said it did not want to participate.  So, what did I do with this abundance of sunshine?  I uncovered the garden. The cabbages that I did not cover fared well so I figured that the entire garden needed sunshine as much as I did.  Everything is now out in the open even though we are expected to have a few more days of cold.  

  While I was toting an armload of kindling for the old woodstoves, I noticed the sun making pretty with the window panes in the french doors.  The floor was covered with rainbows from the prisms.  What a happy, colorful sight after the gray of yesterday.  Today was colorful!  In fact, it was every color splashed all over the floor!  Oh, Mr. Sun!  Thank you ever so much.  It is too bad you have to disappear again tomorrow.  

  Yep, we are in for yet more storms complete with high winds, possible hail and tornadoes.  Then...more cold.  The Bayou just cannot catch a break from storms!  At least, these are winter storms and not hurricanes!  Oh, please....NOT YET!

Cold and Gray

   I was out at daybreak trying to cover and secure things for the hard freeze tonight.  I knew I had to get it in gear and get it done before the rains set in for the day.  After covering the garden the best I could, filling the woodbins with a hefty supply of logs and cutting enough kindling to keep those fires going, I felt that my tasks were about complete.  I headed inside to bake.  To me, there is nothing more satisfying than baking on a cold, rainy/sleeting day.  The rain did turn to sleet for a good bit of the time but the oven going was a happy thought.  Cream cheese croissants and broccoli/mozzarella rolls were being turned out like clockwork!  Amazing aromas were wafting from the kitchen!

  Along about midafternoon, I noticed something strange.  The "quiet noise" of the sleet stopped and the windows started brightening.  Aha!  Perhaps the nastiness was just going to turn to cold now!  Wandering into the living room, I noticed the crystals hanging in the window.  There were no "rainbows" shooting around the room.  In fact, there was gray.  Things looked gray just like outside.  It looked cold.  Well, time to close the curtains, turn on the lamps and make things at least look cozy!  Stay warm, folks.  Mother Nature wants to see you wear your heavy coats!

The Dance of the Crystals

  Hanging in the south-facing windows of the living room are dozens upon dozens of crystals.  These dangle on fine strands of fishing twine and sparkle with the bright sunshine.  The crystals are my newest additions to the crystal collection.  Previously, I had only about ten in a neat frame that Son made for me one year.  Those still are my favorites but now the windows are filled with the happy pieces.  This morning when the sun finally broke through the clouds, the crystals all sparkled at their best and sent rainbows dancing about the room.  The sight made me think of my little granddaughter.  Mary Ruth loves to make the crystals "dance".  She very carefully touches the each one until they gently swirl casting rays of color as they spin.  It is magical to her and her glee is magical to me.  Oh, how I miss that sweet girl and wish she could be back on the Bayou.  A year is far too long to go without seeing the grandlittles.

  As I age, I find beauty in the oddest things.  While the rainbows cast by the crystals are beautiful, the prisms, themselves, are works of art.  Each cut...each facet is precise.  It is that precision that causes the sunlight to be shattered into the brilliant colors.  Without those, the glass would not sparkle nearly so much. 

  While looking at the crystals this morning, I could not help but make them dance a bit.  Rainbows happily decorated the walls and ceiling.  They bounced off of furniture and the old dog.  They even made the floor look special.  In the midst of it all, I felt a bit like Pollyanna. 

Things Seem A Bit Dimmer

  First, let me say that it felt really weird last night.  We lost Internet and for the first time since I started this blog way back in 2010, I missed writing a post.  I waited until midnight and still no connections so I finally gave up and went to sleep.  It did not feel right.  It still feels strange as I look back on the posts and see one missing.  Hopefully, that will not occur again even though I doubt too many folks even noticed.  

  Now, another strange feeling.  I have a great emptiness inside me.  After a full week of having my son, daughter-in-law and grandlittles here on the Bayou with us, they have headed back to their home in Georgia.  The place seems too quiet...too empty.  My heart is breaking.  Mark and I have been wandering around in a bit of a daze.  We miss the hubbub of family.  The chattering, laughing and even the baby fussing made the Little Bayou House seem alive. Not now.  It just seems empty.

  Earlier today (before our daily thunderstorm), I wandered through the living room to see the sunlight streaming through the east window. This window was a favorite of the grandlittles as there are a dozen or so crystals hanging by tiny chains and threads.  When the sunbeams pass through the crystals, thousands of rainbows fill the room.  During their visit, I showed the tots how to gently touch the prisms to set them swinging.  This caused the colors to dance about the room.  Each morning Mary Ruth and Mark Charles would rush to the window to make their rainbows dance.  It delighted them which delighted me.  

  Today, however, the rainbows did not dance.  In fact, they did not even seem as bright as they were this entire past week.  They made their mandatory appearance thanks to the sunshine but did not bounce around the walls, floor and ceiling.  If possible, I think even the crystals missed the tiny fingers reaching up so lovingly to touch them.  Strange how things change.  I sure miss my family.  Things around here seem a whole lot dimmer without them here.

Looking for Rainbows on a Cloudy Day

  As of late, the weather here on the Bayou has presented us with more than our share of rain, clouds and fog.  It seems that even though we are not experiencing winter-like cold, we are having plenty of gray days of the season.  It suits me fine.  Give me a good foggy or stormy day and I am plumb happy.  Occasionally, however, I need that sun to pop through the gloom and shine brightly.  This desire is for one, and only one, reason.  

  In one of the living room windows of the Little Bayou House, there sits a oddly made frame that is the home of a dozen or so prisms and crystals.  They dangle from tiny chains and, when the sunshine hits them just so, the entire room is filled with rainbows.  Today when I saw the sunshine beaming through the curtains, I threw them back to reveal the crystals.  Immediately, the room was dancing with rainbows!  I felt a little like Pollyanna and her prisms. I smiled. 

  Sometimes in our darkest hours, we are sent rainbows to let us know that everything will be right again soon.  In my case, I needed to see the rainbows filling the living room.  I needed to see them dancing on the walls, the ceiling and the floor.  I needed to find the rainbows. Occasionally, we all do.  Keep looking.  When you need them the most, they will be there.

 

Dancing with Rainbows!

  I have always been fascinated by light and shadows.  Throw in a heaping amount of rainbows and I am downright ecstatic!  In the living room of the Little Bayou House, there is a handmade stand that houses a dozen or so crystals that keep me plumb happy.  The collection began with a single Austrian crystal that my sweet uncle gave to me.  Uncle Alfred and Aunt Marie had the large round crystal hanging in their large picture window for years and when it came time for him to move, he presented the thing to me.  I guess this was a result of my habit of always complimenting the thing and the colors that bounced around the whole room.  Now, I  have collected a good many through gifts and thrift stores.  

  To be totally honest, I had forgotten about the collection as it had become covered by the curtains that I hang to keep the winter chill from entering.  My sweet daughter-in-law, Joanna, mentioned it on the night before they headed back to Georgia.  Oh, my goodness!  I could not let the grand princess go home without experiencing the beauty of the rainbows!  That night, I prayed that the sun would shine at least a little bit the next morning.  Before dawn, I found a screwdriver and moved the stand to a new window where I knew it would get optimal sunshine at an early hour.  

  After she finished her breakfast, I brought her out to the living room and pointed at a few of the rainbows on the ceiling.  Having seen these before, she was happy but did not display the emotion that I had dreamed she would.  Then, I pointed to the prisms and let her hold the tiny chain that connects the crystals to the stand.  As she wiggled the prism, the lights went crazy!  They danced about the room and the tiny girl dropped the chain to join in the happy jig.  Immediately, she had to corral the entire household and explain how the prisms made the rainbows and that her wiggling the chain made them dance.  Everybody oohed and ahhed over the beautiful rainbows and her talent in making the dance.  

  Children are wonderful.  Their innocence, their imaginations and their ability to find elation in simple things is something we should all strive to revert to ourselves.   What a beautiful world it would be if we could only see it through a child's eyes.  Yep....MawMaw needs to find more crystals so the grand princess can have a few at her house!  At some point in life, everyone needs to dance with rainbows.

Looking on the Bright Side!

Today was a dreary, dreary day on the Bayou.  The end of the 2012 seemed to be fading out instead of going out with a bang!  I awoke to grey skies, I gathered firewood under grey skies and Ms. Ez and I hiked under grey skies. Not once did Ole Mr. Sun poke his head out to brighten our day.  All of this greyness made me cold.  The temperature was not bad at about 50 degrees but I suppose it was just because the sun was not out to warm me that I felt chilled the whole day through.  The fire in the woodstove burned brightly and I pulled on an extra sweater but to no avail.  So!  I baked!  If all else fails, heat up the oven and bake cookies!  There is just something about the aroma of freshly baked cookies to warm up the place!

All of this greyness brought about a case of the mullygrubs as Grandmother used to say.  Once I finished the outside chores, I puttered around inside the Little Bayou House.  There are just so many cookies one can bake without tiring of even that job!  With my chair pulled up to the window overlooking the Bayou, I sat and stared..pondering the coming year.  Was it to be as bleak as this day?  Surely not!  As I lounged about, a bit of brightness suddenly appeared in the room!  On the opposite wall, a bit of a rainbow danced with delight.  What was causing this?  There was no sunshine to beam through the window!  I knew that my prisms and crystals often caused rainbows to play about the room but that was on sunny days not grey, dismal days!  The rainbow of colors stayed for quite some time but only in that one spot.  None of the other prisms nor the crystals were forming any rainbows at all.

Perhaps this was a sign!  If not, at least I will think of it as one!  It is a happy sign!  Just in time for the beginning of the year.  I shall take this as an indication that even in the darkest hour, there will be some light..some good will be lurking among the bad..a smile hidden among the scowls and frowns.  If a prism can seek out the tiniest speck of light and cast beautiful rainbows upon the wall, I should be able to find something to smile about each day despite of how dreary I may think that day is!  Yep..it is a sign..a sign for the new year.  With the dawning of a new year, look for the smiles, the kindness, the goodness, the rainbows.  They are there...blessings if we seek them.

Shadows and Irises....

Sometimes it is the simplest of things that can bring a tad of pleasure..a warm feeling..or even just a smile. Yesterday, while my cousin was here visiting, I smiled as I watched her take pictures around the place. She was able to find pleasure in the smallest of things. The Little Bayou House is far from elegant but it does have its interesting little nooks and crannies. It was these little out-of-the ordinary tidbits that were catching her eye..they piqued her interest and made her smile. I smiled because I saw that some of the same things brought a bit of pleasure to her that did me. She seemed particularly interested in catching the light that streamed through the open windows and doors. The shadows that played upon the floor and the irises or rainbows that were caused by the prisms and crystals hanging in the windows seemed to fascinate her just as they do me. We are two of a kind, I suppose..both enthralled by the fleeting beauty that only a fading day can bring.

I thought about her picture-taking today as I watched the sunset on the Bayou. I thought of how fleeting these sunsets and even the sunrises are. Their beauty is ever-changing but they soon lapse into the inkiness of the night or the glaring light of the day. I thought of how life is so like those moments..fleeting. It is the shadows and irises that make life interesting..the ups and downs of our time on Earth. My ups and downs..my shadows and irises have sort of melded into one..into a sort of serenity. (I tend to see beauty in most everything..a sure sign that I am aging!) Someone once told me that it is because I live on the Bayou that I feel this way but I feel that it the Bayou that lives in me..I have truly become a part of my surroundings and they..a part of me. We are one.

My cousin, Margaret, was here for just a few days and I miss her presence tremendously. Our time together was cut short by her need to return home to her family and her students. It is almost an eerie feeling to have someone so reflect yourself as she does me..we are two alike..almost one. She grew up just a few hundred feet from the Little Bayou House so it was like coming home for her even though her life now is elsewhere. She left the Bayou years ago to become well-traveled, highly educated and a very successful leader. I stayed. Yet, when we are together..back on the Bayou again..we are kindred spirits! We could very easily be running barefoot through the cool, dew-covered grass or climbing the Mimosa Tree in search of the sweet-scented blooms. You see..the Bayou lives within her, too.

Rainbow Mornings!

It is a marvelous thing to awaken in the morning and be able to smile. We should all embrace the new day with as big of a smile as we can muster and then maybe, just maybe, we would realize just how blessed we really are. My husband's grandmother used to always tell me she loved the mornings because when she opened her eyes, she knew she had been granted a new day. My morning began with a very big smile today! The sun was just starting to peek though the pines surrounding the Bayou as I wandered into the living room. In the darkness of the room, I was greeted by hundreds of rainbows bouncing everywhere. It was as if the room was alive with color.. almost like I had stepped into a kaleidoscope. These rainbows were being made as the early morning sun passed through a dozen or more crystal prisms that are hanging in the window. They are hanging in a weird sort of frame and I usually move this from window to window trying to catch the sunbeams. This morning, however, it must have been in exactly the right position to cause the beams to be shattered and scattered all around the room. It was sort of like Machu Picchu in Peru..the temples are said to be aligned so the sun goes through certain windows at the Summer Solstice and then again at the Winter Solstice..only not like that at all since mine are just haphazardly placed prisms creating irises and is in my living room not Peru! (So maybe that was a very poor example..or maybe I was a tad over excited about this Light Wonderland.) But anyway, the whole point of this rambling is that a small intangible thing like a beam of light can bring happiness. Our blessings may not be large and earth shaking events..they might be something we cannot even hold in our hands..but we are blessed just to wake and see a new day. I highly recommend that everyone place prisms in their windows so that they can experience their own "Rainbow Morning"! It will definitely bring a smile to the face!