Simply Ghostly

In full disclosure, this week's simple pleasure is over a week old.

Due to a series of unfortunate events, I was late getting here last week. By the time I did, Blogger Man had closed the hatch, and my post was unable to fly.  Here I am this week, better late than never, to share the simple pleasure that I have named  Redbeard's Ghost. 

This is the oak grove at the end of my street. 

There's nothing at all unique about it. Spanish moss drips from nearly every oak tree south of the Mason-Dixon line.  Around here, it's as common as kudzu and cornbread, and most folks pass right on by without a second glance.

But I like it. I like the way it hangs from the trees like a scraggly grey beard.   It has a romantic look to it, in a spooky sort of way.

It wasn't the grey beards that gave me my simple pleasure this week, though. It was a beard of a different color.  The other evening, I was driving home at sunset, and I saw something that I had never noticed before.

Don't those scraggly beards kind of look like they're on fire?  

They did to me.

I was completely jazzed by the sight.
The whole grove was bursting with flaming beards.

I pulled Ebenzer to the side of the road to get pictures. I think I sat  there for about 30 minutes just watching the show. Unfortunately,  I couldn't quite capture the beauty of it all. I was still using that borrowed camera, and I couldn't figure out how to work the thing.

I'm so glad to have a new shiny red Kodak...  

I have spent the past week trying to recapture the sight with no success. I guess just like any good simple pleasure, I was supposed to stop and appreciate the moment.  

I'm so glad that I did. 

Watching the sun set on the Spanish Moss is this week's simple pleasure.

*****

Joining Dayle at

A Collection of This and That

for her weekly Simple Pleasures party.