Dissociated Thoughts

Borrowed Paradise

Written for: "Blogging Circle of Friends "  Day 3193: August 11, 2021
Prompt: Use these words in your blog entry: turtle, frog, dragonfly, pond, lily pad, and rain.

         It was a day in late spring like any other, the weather still heavily humid from the morning rain. The grass soaked our feet on the short walk from the truck down to the water. I was there to help my husband with a sprinkler job. But honestly, I just wanted a chance to get out of the house and enjoy a bit of nature. And I can never turn down a trip to this property, hidden in the woods as it is. If I owned it, I'd live there all the time rather than keeping it as a getaway home.
         The scene was beautiful. We were working on a pump situated on an old boat dock with worn, greying boards warped from years of weathering. Overlooking the spring fed pond and acreage was an elegant old southern mansion flanked by towering pecan trees. A trellis to the side supported a massive wisteria in full bloom, dipping down to touch the flagstones below. The lawn was as well manicured as one can get when sounders of wild hogs habitually come through rooting up the grass. Surrounding the boat dock were hundreds of lily pads under which small fish darted back and forth, shimmering when the sun glinted off their sides. Dragonflies hovered over the water in the dozens, pausing every so often to have a rest on one of the lily pads. A little flat-bottomed boat was tied to the dock and my husband knew by the look on my face that I was imagining how nice it would be to go rowing around in it. I sat, daydreaming instead of helping him. Once he finished getting the system ready for the rigor of summer use, he suggested we take a ride in the boat. I was overjoyed. Getting in was not as simple as I had imagined, as I'm not as agile as I once was. However, once we were both in, he paddled the boat around the perimeter of the large pond. Frogs were croaking from the shelter of willow trees and duck weeds and there were even more dragon flies than I could count. Larger fish were jumping farther out in the water, trying to catch the pond skimmers that floated on the surface. At one point, I spied a snake silently swimming by, a black ribbon creating faint waves atop the water. Turtles sunned lazily on floating logs everywhere around us. A large clump of soft rush on the shoreline rustled as if by a larger sized animal. We were in the country and animals of every kind are common. I was thinking it was probably a pig or deer coming to the water for a drink. Instead, after a little more rustling of the shoreline vegetation, an alligator appeared in a gap amongst the rush and slid down into the water, scattering turtles back into the relative safety of the pond and quieting the frogs for a time. At that point my husband, who is not as interested in large carnivorous reptiles as I, decided this was an opportune time to head back to the dock and load the equipment back into the truck. On the way back across the water, I could see that gator, watching the world with only his eyes and nose above the water. But I also was able to see some deer come to the edge to drink. It was a lovely day in the midst of my borrowed paradise.

LeJenD'Poet - Just ME