Nature's Character

I was mingling in Live Chess last evening, when Mariah (the birthday girl, for those of you that read my blog) came into the room, and asked if I wanted to go out looking for night crawlers with her. I was surprised, but I went with her outside. It was a beautiful night, and the sky was still yet a dark blue near the westerly horizon, for the sun had set only a short time ago. At this time of year, the sun sets very late in the evening. We looked for night crawlers for a time, without any luck. (although, Mariah did see one, but was not able to catch it; When it knew we where there, it immediately dug it's way back into the moist earth.) She finally decided to turn her attention to something else: Fire Flies! Not many are out this year yet, but last night, we saw a fair few. Most of them where scared off by our 10 million candle power flashlights, and after a while we decided that it was easier to see them with the light off! :) After an unsuccessful trek around the yard, trying our best to catch one, we hear the bats, making their nightly rounds, looking for insects to devour; this was something a little more interesting! They say people can't hear the sound of a bat's sonar, but this is not true. It's similar to the sound of a TV (not an LCD, mind you) when it is tuned on. Rapid squeaks, like that of a minuscule little creature. A mouse's squeak, is like it, but the bat's voice is much higher pitched, and at times, feels more like you are sensing it, rather than actually hearing it. But anyway, we found the place that bats seem to love the most, and that's right under the large light illuminating a portion on the yard. Bugs (especially moths) swarm around this light, for they are trying to use it with their navigation system. I don't know how it works, but they are "programmed" to fly toward the light, so naturally they seem attracted to it. The bats are rewarded with a feast here, swooping left and right picking off the little pesky insects. We can imagine where the bats must be, by the sound of their super shrill squeaking, but it's never possible to pinpoint. We used the flashlight, shining it upward and then, the nightlife in the sky, that would normally be overlooked, suddenly became reviled to us. We could see all the little insects, and the bats flying in and out of the beams of light looking for the more juicy ones! By this time, the sky was dark, and all the clouds had gone. We had had a rain just a few hours before, and the ground was very damp. The stars where so visible; the sounds of the night leapt from seemingly nowhere, when we stopped our chitter-chatter, and just listened in on the nature around us. It could have been called serene, very peaceful. The breeze was non existent. A perfect scene, all except the misquotes!

We made it back just in time to play a few games again on live chess, just before bed. It was a nice experience, and it shows me, that we don't really take enough time to observe the beauty around us, called nature.

Chess.com has to much of a hold on us! :)

Knightly