Saturday, June 27, 2009

Head in the clouds

I've been flying a lot lately instead of riding. Which is why I saw this guy.




Who reminded me of this guy.



But I digress.

I fly Southwest Airlines, which I love, because they have open seating. It means if you know the system, you can sit where ever you want.

I always opt for seat in front of the wings by the window. Sometimes I don't look out the window, usually because I love reading the airline magazine, Spirit (where one of my essays ran), sometimes because I have chatty seat companions (which I enjoy too, because it's a great bit of randomness that helps me as a writer - beware, if you sit next to me you could be in my next novel), or because I have to work like a dog before my one hour flight is up.


But lately I've flown so often that I've read the whole magazine, had silent people in the row, and been done with work.

So I've been looking out the window...




Friday we were flying back at the best time of the day. The sun was hitting every patch of water and making it look like shiny pennies had been dropped by a careless giant.





Then, as we got closer to the Hill Country, lakes lit up like molten gold.




There were dragons, golden and shimmering in the late afternoon of summer,




Spikey in places, smooth in the middle, golden everywhere.




Fat golden geckos, maybe horn toads, sunned themselves under us.




Cloud islands filtered the sunlight down, but in the distance was another golden lake. These pictures from my phone don't capture how bright the gold was - as bright as your child's smile, as luminescent as a lovers gaze. Gold at the end of the rainbow would be dull by comparison.



It was a game, after a while, trying to find the moment when the gold made the most interesting leaps across the water,






Tangles of river catching the light and tossing it back into the sky, beauty unseen most of the time,





because most people are chatting, reading books, working, sitting on the other side of the plane, missing this incredible dance of light on water, gold spilled, there for the taking.




Then, we got here. This is the lake where I live. We fly over it on the way home sometimes, not every time. But I've never seen it golden like this.




(this post was inspired by Lisa's cloud pictures and Carmon's roses.)

Next post: A letter to Leslie.

4 comments:

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

I love that book Caps For Sale! I love that you have a great imagination, like me ,too. I would have thought the same thing about that guys hats. hehe!

Your photos were beautiful...but your creative, imaginative, descriptive writing carried me away. I needed that today. Thanks for that. Really. I mean it.

Thank goodness for your fast reading and quiet co-passengers. :)

~Lisa

jacksonsgrrl said...

Bee-yoo-tiful pics of our slice of Texas! You definitely captured a MAGIC moment in time....
I immediately thought the guy was selling the hats to tourists or some such....seems so typical of the Mexicano slice of Texas!
So what of our trail ride? Send me dates of availability....and if you are bringing Sierra...I may be bringing Miles as I am now full time single mom. I had 5 days notice that my ex is headed to Iraq for a year, and he left yesterday,thus rendering my son w/o his dad (OH MY) and me on my OWN with this strange teenager! Anyway, we can figure it out....Will be a mild, easy ride, no worries....This heat needs to give us a break though!!!!!
~Mindy

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for the link! I was so intrigued by your water photos and descriptions, I went and looked at your profile and saw you live in Canyon Lake. I lived there for about a year while I was working with a race horse breeder's stock, trying to keep them sane enough to handle the stress of racing. You always knew when summer had arrived as you followed tourists driving no more than twenty mph as they took in the sights!

Thanks again for the link and visit. Carmon

allhorsestuff said...

Very cool indeed~