Ohmigosh! Look at that on the steps? A Luna moth? Too green. A tropical butterfly somehow displaced to western North Carolina? Let me get a closer look . . .
Oh, well. Just a sprig of the Mock Orange bush that grows next to the steps and is trying to expand its territory. But it sure looked like a butterfly.
Among the changes that come with age is the dimming of vision. I'm still wearing over the counter reading glasses for close work but have resisted full time glasses. It may be time . . .
James Thurber, who was very nearly blind, wrote a wonderful piece for The New Yorker called "The Admiral on the Wheel" recounting the various things that he saw while his glasses were being repaired. You can read it HERE in the magazine's archive-- if you have a subscription. Thurber says: "The kingdom of the partly blind is a little like Oz, a little like Wonderland, a little like Poictesme. Anything you can think of, and a lot you would never think of, can happen there."
Some of my recent sightings ( I rely on taking pictures then putting them on the computer and zooming in to see what it really was.)
John and I were enjoying gin and tonics on the porch when I spotted something red in the big tree at the foot of the yard. A Scarlet Tanager was my first thought and then, as it stubbornly refused to move, I decided it was a male cardinal sitting on a nest. (In my defense, these pics were taken a few days later -- what I saw was brilliant red and partially obscured by leaves -- other leaves.)
And then there was the puzzling critter at the foot of the yard. A bunny? Or what. It didn't move like a bunny.
Still fuzzy but I think it's a young, fluffed-out Brown Thrasher.
Ah, the wonders of old age!
8 comments:
While going slowly deaf in one ear, my experience was just like yours with sight. I heard, or thought I heard the most bizarre things. It got to be funny when I would repeat back what I thought I heard, but then I realized I was missing out on life. So, $4,000 later, hearing aids have changed my world, I can participate again. Like getting my glasses for the first time at age 20 and realizing there were individual leaves on trees. Go get the glasses!!
Yep!
Readers in every room, but outdoors, well that's more interesting.
I've happily found seeing at distance is more important than vanity...hint hint. Also safer for driving now, can see what those street names are too!
Vicki, I love the way you play I Spy With My Little Eye! I am still managing well with my own drugstore glasses, Since I have glaucome, I do go for regular check ups with my eye doctor. Although we do discuss eventual cataract surgery, he has not yet recommended that I change into prescription specs.
Looks to me as if you really do live in a Wonderland. xo
Sometimes you can see more things when you have to imagine what they really are.
You can let your imagination go wild and have fun Vicki. I wear trifocal glasses all day long. Only take them off to sleep and clean them. I never lose them that way.
Oh hearings going too. We have the T V sound up real high now and I am sure it disturbs our neighbors. Will have to go to the ear doctor someday.
This is such a timely post for me as I had had cataract surgery two days before. Now, it's a whole new world that I see. I've been peering through a sort of fog, and now I can see the ants on the sidewalk and the color in the flowers. Amazing. But now I feel like I constantly need to sweep the floor! It's been nice for the past few years to see my house looking always clean, and my face without wrinkles.
Gosh you're giving me lots of chuckles as I catch up on my blog reading… ;-)
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