The Pier

One of my favorite spots around these parts so far is the public pier on the bay near my trailer. I biked down there after work today to watch the fish jump and the sun set and the near-full moon rise. Sea gulls were squawking and fighting over the morsels tossed to them by a man shrimping closer in to shore; a family was fishing down at the end of the dock. I looked up at one point, idly pausing from writing my thoughts in my journal (thanks, Duck!), and happened to spot the king of birds--a great blue heron wading in the reeds. He waded, stood; waded, stood; then flew up to alight on the pier where the shrimper had been a few moments ago. His progress from pier to pier was contemplative, unhurried; eventually he made his way over towards the backwater pond where I usually see him during my morning jogs. He'd been absent this morning, and it was comforting to spy him out on the bay, a missing part of my landscape familiarly restored.

I know you're wishing I'd taken a picture, but some things are infinitely better in person.