After The Party's Over

I had spent the morning baking a cake for my sister, Mary's birthday picnic. This was an upside down spice cake, and just as I flopped it out of the skillet hot and trembling with its butter, brown sugar, cherries and pecan topping, my cousin Marjorie appeared. The cake must be tucked into the trunk of her car with no time to settle and cool a bit. We were off.

We ate sandwiches in an open pavilion in Gulf Islands National Seashore Park looking over the water and marsh. The day was chilly and the wind off the water was penetrating. Nobody had thought of the need for coats, so we huddled in splotches of sunlight...pretending not to care. Gifts were opened by my dear and shivering older sister, and then came warm cake. It helped a little. There were lovely people there who know that my sister delights in birds and art and books and such. So a good party all in all.

As Marjorie and I were leaving the park (I was still shivering and looking forward to a nap beneath a warm quilt), Marjorie suddenly turned around the car having caught a glimpse of turtles in an inlet off the side of the road. If you've never seen turtles sunning themselves on log, you don't know how the sight can remind you of the simple wonders of nature. It can bring you back to yourself and the pleasure of being alive on this glorious planet of ours. Marjorie kindly tossed me an extra jacket and we ran across the road to gaze at a scene that could have been designed for a nature lover's viewing pleasure. Yes, there were turtles...four, but their was also an enormous and lazy alligator a good distance from the turtles.
We were gazing raptly at the turtles when from behind some reeds came a great white heron, elegant as all get out, and a perfect balance to the whole and living work of art. I took many photographs, but I kept coming back to the turtles as reflective of my own after party mood. Oh to be basking in the sunlight away from the wind on a comfy log. I give you turtles.