Back in Time

Sometimes you have to travel back in time, 

skirting the obstacles, 

in order to love someone.

~ Frances Mayes, Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir

I went "back home" for a day. I snagged my sister on the way and we visited with family and friends at our high school.


Later we spent some time in her yard - at 10:30 p.m. Green treefrogs were barking/quacking like mad and Gulf Coast Toads trills overlapped  - deafening sound. At 3:00 a.m. the toads were still noisy. I wondered if they woke me.


At 7:30 a.m. the squirrels and Blue Jays competed at the bird feeder. And every now and then we heard a frog or toad in the distance.


I think I could have stayed there all day - watching the squirrels and birds and listening to the sounds of the neighborhood, but wiser heads prevailed. My sister put me on the road back north.

Fox squirrel raiding the bird feeder.

It was a fast trip - the car knows the way.  

And I needed to make one more stop. It's a place I have written about before and will write about again, Mankins' Crossing. 

The day was perfect - blue sky with Magritte-like white clouds. I knew there would be birds at the crossing and so detoured there for a moment. White egrets (Snowy egrets, I think) were wading in the shallow water at this ford of the San Gabriel River. 

Crop growing on the west side of the crossing.

A car crosses the road ahead of me.

Two Snowy Egrets wading. We need a good rain to wash the algae away.

The colors were almost too saturated.

I'll need to write about these folks in greater detail. Stay tuned.