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I KNOW THAT EVERY DAY IS A GIFT. But today...ahh...the extra-special wrappings! Today came presented with a fabulous sheen of clear, sparkling sunlight and a pretty little bow of gentle breezes. When I went to the mailbox to post a bill payment, I was only outdoors for a minute or two, but picked up an infusion of happy-to-be-alive that had slipped directly from the gift package.

An hour or so later I took a little trip through the countryside to collect some curtains that a good seamstress and good friend (how lucky is that?) had sewn for me. Way out in the boonies is where this friend lives...fortunately for me, on this day of perfect weather (and I definitely stand by that classification.)


When I thought to record some of the idyllic pastoral scenes for you, it was difficult not to brake every time I rounded another curve or topped another hill (and believe me, this rural section of the country is quite well-supplied with earth swellings of various sizes.)









Because of which, curves are plentiful. And caused me some consternation when I saw a strange-looking obstacle in the road directly ahead of me. As I was thinking of how to maneuver around this odd contraption, I crested the hill and saw the road curve sharply to the left--with mailboxes on the right.

Did I learn anything? Just a little further on I was fooled again--amazing how that tree ahead is practically growing out of the road!

























I passed a wise person making hay,

and some other creatures who may also be wise, eating hay while the sun shone.


Mostly it was just miles of this--the green, the white and the blue.


Some spots were heavy on the green,

others had an emphasis on the white.



Most views spread out before me were an awesome combination. Earth and sky and....large masses of fine droplets of water, technically speaking; but why am I speaking technically? It's most certainly a poetically-speaking sort of a day. Earth and heavens and...billows of ephemeral soul-stirring whiteness.






Other than the ten minutes spent in a church parking lot taking deep breaths and telling myself that excruciatingly slow-moving government vehicles have every right to travel the same roads on the same gorgeous day as myself, the whole trip was an exquisite pleasure; and even that little interlude of inspiring spire-gazing while I waited for the offending vehicles to creep right on out of my path was not without its positive aspects.











After I got to my friend's house and picked up the curtains, I got to turn around and take the whole trip again, and I discovered that all of the scenes looked just as good in reverse, and...




...amazingly enough, so do the curtains!





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