Our drive faces south so when I drive in or out, the rising sun is on our right, the east side. Today has been quite warm, 50° F and warmer. The snow on our roof is melting and dripping off the roof. The dripping is a good sign of spring and warmth. Each drop of melt sparkles in the morning sunlight and is beautiful, especially pretty when the drop strikes the sidewalk beneath and shatters.
I wanted to get a picture of the falling sparkles. I tried a photo with my iPad and I tried a video. The photo caught no sparkle at all. It just showed a wet sidewalk. A wet sidewalk in bright sunlight either means melting and warmth or it means it is raining. But it was the sparkle I was after.
Ok, the falling drops are moving so I tried a video. Nope. No deal. Just a tiny indication of drops with the briefest possible twinkle. Not inspiring or noteworthy. So, let that be a lesson: our eyes and ears are advanced instruments and can do things all the time and quickly and easily that many semi-advanced pieces of equipment can't accomplish. You had to be there to see the sunlight, the splatter of the drops and the marvelous sparkles of the collusion between newly melted snow melt and the cement sidewalk.
Our eyes and ears, in low light and high noise, under a wide range of conditions, do marvelous things all the time. You can take it all for granted but when you are older and grayer, you may pause and think what a wonder you have been since your conception. We are actually pretty cool!
[I got about 30 bounces this morning from yesterday's emailed. It was only two pictures, the amaryllis on Feb. 4 and on the 16th. I thought the contrast and the growth were heartening. If you want to see them, look up the blog page for Fear, Fun and Filoz. I suspect the photos were too large.]
