Up the Sunbeam

-- For two weeks I had been trying to no avail to block out the raucous and incessant screech emanating from the mulberry tree outside my dining room where I do all my writing. Imagine the sound of a rusty door hinge stuck on infinite repeat!  The noise was so unpleasant and distracting, I had to all but abandon my usual love of an open sliding glass door, just to put something of a buffer between my ears and that horrid squawking sound! One morning, when I did have the door open to let the cool breeze in, I noticed that the squawking was moving around instead of staying in the mulberry tree.  She So Sweet and I went to investigate.  Finally we saw the noisy little culprit who had been disturbing our peace!!  It was a baby mockingbird who had yet to discover he could make more than one sound! We tiptoed out toward the baby bird and much to our surprise he didn't make any effort whatsoever to get away. Perched in a flowering shrub underneath the nest in the mulbe...

-- Storm watch! For days ahead of time they warned of a stack of storms from the Pacific. Anticipation . . . then . . . I awoke to the sound of rain bullets pelting windows in the wee hours, drivin g wind forcing water sideways. Drummer Boy stumbled out of bed early--I think he couldn't resist nature's finest percussion--he probably wondered if he could play his double-bass that fast! What a wild, raucous celebration!! Like an orchestra playing big bold brassy music, with cymbals crashing and timpanis thundering, the weather was a wild thing all day! Rain started. . . and stopped . . . and started again. My 4th floor office affords almost a 360° view and there was a lot to see! By late afternoon, a cloud made of midnight crested over the hills to th e west, while the east side of the building was bathed in light as warm as morning sun! It seemed night and day were colliding directly above us! All at once, the rain in that rolling black thunderhead crashed h...