Fireflies and Falling Stars

Delicious, satiny, star-flecked nights entice us outdoors for long walks. We carry along our little bat detector and track the bats whizzing past us. The detector picks up and magnifies their sonar clicks. Jeff and I hold hands as we walk down our one lane dirt road along Little Harbor and the bats fly over, around, and between us.

Fireflies are flickering through the bayberries, blueberries, and grasses on the ocean side of our yard. The female fireflies stay put at the tops of grasses and bushes, and flash greetings in answer to the males who lilt through the darkness like falling stars. All science aside, I always thought that fireflies were lanterns carried by the garden faeries during their night flights and rambles.

Jeff crouched down in the bushes and spent a half hour trying to photograph some of them. He would quickly flash a small light, and the fireflies (who thought he was a BIG firefly) responded brightly, which helped him track them to their hide-outs. He finally triumphed with this photo. Hard to believe that this humble looking beetle can produce so much magic.

Firefly

A little light is going by,

Is going up to see the sky,

A little light with wings.

I never could have thought of it,

To have a little bug all lit

And made to go on wings.

Elizabeth Madox Roberts

We try to eat every meal outdoors in our tiny screened porch. We don't have electricity out there, but we do have old "LIGHTNING" canning jars filled with a layer of beach sand and outfitted with candles. Everything tastes better when we're outdoors, serenaded by the crashing waves, and enchanted by the quick hieroglyphics of fireflies against the night sky.

Sweet dreams-think of the sound of the sea and the faeries lighting their way with tiny lanterns,

Sharon