"Oh, look! A rainbow!" I exclaimed, as the majestic sight came into view in the wide window of the train. Then I heard an announcement alerting the passengers to look east at the beautiful rainbow. We were traveling home from our trip to Texas seeing family and had been experiencing thunderstorms. But now the western sun had made a late afternoon appearance, and conditions were just right for this optical phenomenon.
The solid grey cloud cover provided the perfect backdrop and the water droplets to reflect and refract the vibrant colors of the spectrum. It was the most vivid rainbow I think I had ever seen, clearly visible from one end to the other as the bow touched down in the field in front of us. Not only that, there was a second bow with inverted colors being reflected from the first one.
The whole landscape was bathed in a golden light as the sun broke through the clouds, endowing ordinary houses, pastures and barns with an aura reminiscent of a Thomas Kinkade painting. The newly greening grass, the suffused light softening the grey clouds and the pastel, multicolored arch made me think of Easter. My husband even remarked on the beauty of the scenery.
A little later, I was wondering about a herd of cattle clustered near a pasture fence line. Then my heart was touched as I spotted a tiny, black calf all alone on the other side of the fence, running frantically back and forth, trying to find his way back in to be reunited with his mother, obviously one of the cows anxiously looking on. I couldn't help but think of our baby grandson we had just left and how frantic he gets if his bottle is not immediately forthcoming when he is hungry.
Settling back in our comfortable coach seats, Howard and I reminisced over our lovely visit and the royal treatment we enjoyed from our sons and their families. We had just left our son Trevor who had thoughtfully come from his Dallas area home and met us in Ft. Worth for our 3-hour layover and had taken us to lunch for a wonderful visit with his family.
In Austin, our daughter-in-law Rhonda had had a home-cooked meal waiting for us when son Mark brought us home from the station on our arrival. Son Jamie and family were to pick us up the next day to spend the week with them in Houston. While we waited for them, we all spent time browsing an antique mall, then caught up on family news at a restaurant lunch when they arrived.
The week was a blur of good food, including Chinese, Mexican, Cuban, Scandinavian, and Cajun, not to mention Jamie's gourmet breakfasts of crepes, breakfast casserole, luscious fruit, creamy oatmeal, fancy French toast, bacon and sausage. Outshining them all, however, was the impromptu picnic I shared with my little granddaughters the day I stayed home with them and we ate perched on the steps of the deck. Gloomy skies and chilly days had given way to glorious sunshine, and we dined al fresco, basking in the fresh air and the warmth of each other's presence. Memories to feast on until I can see them again!
No comments:
Post a Comment