quidnovis61

E and I were on our way to town ....

It had rained but now the sun was shining ...

I looked out of the kitchen window to check the thermometer mounted on the window frame outside...

+6ºC  (42ºF)... oh great, I thought...a jacket will do then!

And then I looked up... a glorious rainbow filled the western sky. I grabbed my camera and as I clicked, 17 year old Judy Garland burst quietly in my head:

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow, Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true...

(From The Wizard of Oz, 1939)

It is a song that is automatically on Play mode on seeing a rainbow. I can see her in my mind's eye....Dorothy/Judy Garland and her dog Toto on the farm...she has her hair in plaits and is wearing a pinafore... Slowly the song fills my head... dreams that you dare to dream, really do come true.... it's full of hope and promise....as indeed rainbows are.

E and I were going out to town for our weekly shopping...

I also had an appointment to keep...

We jumped into the car and drove off... lo and behold! as we hit the motorway the rainbow lit up and "met" the end of the road... it was like I was driving straight into it ...far far away...and quite mesmerising. I decided, for the first time, to be "late" for my 2 o'clock appointment or just arrive by the skin of my teeth...I would have to make up an excuse - or tell the truth, of course: I was chasing the rainbow. This was too too amazing to miss...

I drove on the motorway towards the rainbow and of course it got further and further away...Rainbows are elusive things indeed! I wasn't looking for  the pot of gold at the end of it... rainbows are so beautiful that they are enough by themselves...I don't need to look for the gold.... but I wanted to see it. It was like I was being propelled by an inner force.

I turned right off the motorway and drove on the country road. Fields, (on either side of the road) were now barren and full of gulls chasing and squawking behind the tractor looking for insects and earthworms in the newly tilled land...a tiny pond lay still and serene and the new modern wind power stations, like a monolith from a science fiction, lazily turned its giant arms in the sudden bright sunlight.

And there, just behind the naked autumn trees was the rainbow in all its VIBGYOR-splendour. I parked the car by the pond and was most disappointed that I had not brought my Canon with me...but I had, thankfully my small pocket-camera in my handbag.

What grandeur, what brilliance...the rainbow flames leaping at me held me spellbound. Its sublime presence was reassuring - the rainbow tinted my the world in its many hues - after the rain, the hail and the storm.

And Judy Garland's dulcet voice continued to sing in my head...

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow, why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

------- ◊ --------

And yes, I just made it for my 2 o'clock appointment....    

 The last rainbow photo is dedicated to all my friends...

Signing off for now.

C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)

 

 

TO ALL MY FRIENDS: