A sunshine moment

After the hailstorm, the sun came out and the water droplet sparkled. In this droplet, we see the refracted image of our house seen from the garden. There is the garden room with its floor to ceiling windows where I spent all of today and most of yesterday on my vigil for Reg the Tortoise. Then there is the dormer window of our bedroom, and behind that is the gable of the original part of the house. Above, the sky is blue with scattered clouds. The image has been turned through 180 degrees to make its features more obvious.

Last night I had a vivid dream, it was of Caroline standing in front of me holding Reg, he had been found in the garden. It is a week today since he went missing, and the nights since have been unsettled and I've got more tired as the week has gone on. I have had a feeling all along that I wouldn't find him.

Despite the temperature that peaked at 16 degrees C in the shelter of the garden, there was no sign of Reg coming for the strawberries and cherry tomatoes that had been left for him. When Caroline came home at 6 pm, I suggested that perhaps we needed someone to dowse for him. She hadn't thought of that before. Her friend Tess was coming round for Tai Chi practice, she said they could try dousing. I left them to it in the garden and started to sort out the day's photos of water drops and Big Chick.

As I sat here at the computer, they came in after half an hour, saying "should we give up searching now?". I looked out of the doorway at them, and Caroline was holding Reg. The image in my dream. Tess had found him in a place we had searched many times.

Every word of this is true. Had I been a proper photographer, I might have recorded the moment, but I was overcome with relief. A lot of people here and in our part of the material world have been thinking of Reg and sending positive thoughts, some have kindly said their prayers for him and us. It's worked. Thank you.