The Gifts of a Summer Night

I love lightning bugs, fire flies, or whatever you want to call the magical beings of summer nights.  Many times I have wanted to try to take a picture with a long exposure and try to capture many at once.  I tried a few things last summer, but nothing came out.

Tonight, I went down to close the geese in and give them some water and one of the gosling's chest lit up, just like some kind of toy.  I took a double take and then saw it again.  I thought it must be that a lightning bug flew in front of the gosling but the light was in the same place for 3 or 4 flashes.  Then Sal laid in front of the goslings as they went to sleep and I couldn't see any more.  She didn't seem to think anything of it.  I thought it was very bizarre and worried that it might hurt the gosling but they  do eat bugs, occasionally, and a fire fly is just that, a bug.  I saw Cirrus eat a regular fly off his back today.

As I turned to leave, I was treated to an amazing light show, with hundreds of lightning bugs.  The strange thing is, now I am sitting on the front porch, and as I look out over the front yard, I have seen 2 or maybe 3.  Instead, I listen to an orchestra of crickets and others.  The middle act was my neighbors cattle, sounding like they were heading out on a cattle drive.  And now the cattle come back in, to join the crickets, being careful not to overpower them.

This is another one of the times when I realize that it doesn't matter, rich or poor, the sights and sounds of summer evenings are available to everyone.