Today was an amazing day. We drove down to Newport, Rhode Island, and took a tour of a Vanderbilt Mansion, the Marble House.  It is an example of the opulence of Gilded Age.  Found out that term was coined by Mark Twain, but was not done so as a compliment.  After visiting the mansion, we had a Easter lunch in the village.

The most amazing thing happened, however, when we stopped at East Beach in Rhode Island on the way home. There was a young guy and his girlfriend with his small Suburu stuck right beside the water as the waves were coming in. He couldn’t get his car out, and the tide was coming in closer and closer. We asked him what in the hell he thought he was doing taking his car down there and he said he wanted to take photographs.

We tried to help him get the car out, but there was no way it was going to budge. He had called a tow truck. It was cold and he and his girlfriend were walking around in the sand in their bare feet, because they didn’t want to get their shoes with sand. My hands were frozen stiff, so I can imagine how their feet were feeling.

We, and our friends with us, were there for about an hour with him, and his girlfriend. He reassured us the tow truck was coming so we got his number, gave him ours, and decided to leave. He also gave me the tow truck number, so on our way out I called them to be sure they were on their way. I was worried about the kids. The tow truck guy said they were on their way.

Long story short, Elijah, the young man called and said they finally got him out, that it took a lot and the waves were starting to hit the side of the car. He also said his car was running so so, and that he thought maybe there was something wrong with the brakes. The main thing I said to him is that they were safe and sound. I could just see them getting swept away with the waves.  When it was all said and done, the towing cost the kid $500.  He felt it was a bargain.

Anyway the beach was beautiful as the waves hit the sand, and the sun came out on the low horizon. A very interesting day.

Moral of the story, don’t take your car out to the beach to take pictures.  It’s best to walk.

The breeze of today is cool, but the sun is warm on the face.  A crescendo of the song of birds hangs in the air.  The mother Robin is back. She hops around the yard, looking for worms to feed her young, and scraps, to build her nest.

Piles of snow still lie around here, and there. But, Winter will soon bow out! No more reason to stay. And Spring?  She will be alone, at least, for awhile. GRB

What do you say, Mr. Winter? Will you go out like a lion, or a lamb?

Alone

We have had every kind of weather possible this week. Rain, snow, sleet, fog with temperatures ranging from the teens to the fifties. Yesterday, it snowed all day long, from morning to night, leaving a beautiful white dusting. Today it is overly bright, and in the teens. When will it ever end? I ask, “When will winter ever go?”

Find the treasure.

Branch

Bark

In the Garden

Where signs are ornaments

Shed of many faces.

Octogan

Watchkeeper

Where no one bothers me.

Life, love & death

Where fairies roam.

Mountainside

The rain is falling.  It seems to have washed away the fog of yesterday, when all day, there was a wonderful mist hanging in the air, throughout the land.  It was the kind of fog that moved and floated here and there, as if precipitated by spirits.  In very low places in the terrain it was thick and would settle, but above ground it actually looked like groups of little clouds, roaming around.

Today is darker.  As I awoke and heard the rain, words came to mind, to describe the sound it makes, when it falls.  It’s ‘raining cats and dogs, or buckets’.  In Spanish, ‘Llovió a cántaros’.  A ‘cántaro’ is a clay jug, that keeps water cool.  The sound of the rain  depends on what kind of roof it falls upon, and the speed and force, and contact it makes with the surface on which it falls; it could be wooden shingles, corrugated metal, of slate or grass, smooth or perhaps, even plastic.  If it’s a good roof it will keep the water out. This morning the rain isn’t pounding or beating on my roof, it was simply falling at a normal pace, not fast.

Rain is good.  It melts the snow, so we can see the ground, where crocuses, or tulips will begin to show.  In the spring, it supplies water for planting season. One thing’s for sure, ‘Baby, the rain must fall’, which is going to be the case, all day long.

 

Gray is the color for today.  There is a light fog peering out of the forest, in the distance, beyond the blotches of March’s crumby brown snow.  The bare earth shows through, here and there, and a variety of birds are restless in the trees, chirping and tweeting their morning song. They have drowned out, the single sweet notes, the rhythmic tones of yesterdays.  It seems they need more practice, before the performance.  The woodpecker is silent this morn.  The rains should come today. GRB