What A Night

I have no pictures and I fear my words will not do this experence justice, but here it goes…

At about 9 pm Monday the 2nd, as the full moon had just broke the horizon, I decided to try our new ‘fire pit’. The moon was an eerie red, but quickly became the whited face of the man on the moon we are all familiar with.

Of course the wood I bought was wet and getting anything other than paper to burn was a challenge. Lots of smoke, the log pieces smoked long enough and I burned enough paper to turn them to coals. The only real fire came from some twigs I broke off of a dead bush from our back yard. Amaizingly, thought, it was very relaxing while it lasted.

The Missus and I (and the dogs) went inside but I still wasn’t ready to go to bed. I went back out to the deck and began watching the moon and it’s reflection off of the pond in our back yard.

The night was nearly still. If not for looking at the reflection, I would have said there was no wind or breeze. The moons reflection would shift and elongate as the subtitle breeze played with the surface of our pond. When the traffic noise died out for a few minutes, (I live in urban sprawl suburbia) the fountain of the neighboring pond could be heard. Splashing, playing on the surface… I could almost see myself in a thick forest near a waterfall watching the moon on a pool near by.

While staring at the reflection, a jumping fish would catch my eye and for a brief second the ripples of it’s free exhilaration could be seen. Then gone… but were they really? Can they traverse the 100 feet across the pond, I’d stare wondering at the reflection, “would the ripples make it across?”. Then the moons reflection would shift, almost violently and I knew the evidence of the earlier fish had made it across.

The highlight of the evening was when our local musk rat swam directly through the moons reflection. My simple elation in the joy of such a small life made me feel like a kid. The frogs were lightly croaking, ducks and geese could be heard in the distance, blocking out the cars and smelling the wayward whiffs of smoke from the earlier fire brought a renewed life to my soul.

It was a wonderful night.

It was a great night.