Category: outdoors

Posted in noticing, outdoors

Around and around

Posted on by William Douthwaite

We were almost home from a morning walk when I noticed a large circular contrail in the sky. I’m used to seeing the contrails of early morning flights crisscross the sky. I don’t remember ever seeing one that circled back on itself.

I took this photo facing east, so the jet would have been out over the ocean. We guessed the plane was in a holding pattern, waiting for clearance to land. As we looked, we could just see the plane at the front of the contrail, heading back north, most likely into Jacksonville.

When I looked up circular contrails, a conspiracy website said they were actually chemtrails. According to them, some sinister group was spraying toxins into the air to poison a population. That’s an imaginative idea to be sure.

Another person suggested it was a flight pattern for training. That’s possible. We’ve seen a lot of air national guard planes and helicopters overhead the past few weeks.

Anyway, it was a beautiful part of this morning’s sky.

Posted in outdoors

Awake and outside for the dawn

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash

I wasn’t going to get up early. But I heard the Great Dane pup whining from her cage at 5:10 am. The granddaughters were spending the night, and I didn’t want them to wake up, so I quickly snuck in the back bedroom and led the big dog out of her cage, leaving everyone else behind (including the little dog) to keep snoozing.

I got her out just in time. She must have had a lot to drink before bedtime. I gave her breakfast, grabbed my coffee, journal and bible, and went out on the back patio.

Yeah, it’s still pretty dark at that hour of the morning. The humidity must have been down, because the table and chairs weren’t wet with dew. For some reason, the LED lights on the umbrella weren’t working, so I had to rely on my phone balanced on the coffee cup with the flashlight on to see what I was reading and writing.

The big dog patrolled the yard, got a drink, and sat down under the table where I thought I could put my feet. No one else in the neighbor was up yet, so there was no one to woof at. Yet.

As the sky got just the slightest shade lighter, dozens of birds started chirping, calling, and singing. I was amazed at how the morning went from quiet to noisy in just a few minutes.

Suddenly, the big dog trotted off across the yard to let out an enormous, “Woof!” I don’t know what she heard, but it set off the dog alarm. It could have been a frog jumping out of the lawn or a car door in the distance. I barked my own, “Hey!” and she trotted back to see what I wanted. I just didn’t want her to wake everyone up.

Sitting outside is totally different than being inside at my desk. I don’t know if it’s the sounds or the fresh air or the morning breeze. It just feels good to be out there. And since the high temperatures will be in the nineties and the evenings get kind of buggy, it’s the only time during the day I can sit outside.

So I guess I don’t mind being woken up early.