Early morning surprise

About six one morning before the sun had risen over the hills to the east I went on my deck to put out the sunflower seed tube feeder.

I was struck dumb by the vision above. In the western sky, ending right over a friend's farm, was a huge rainbow the end of it straight up in the sky. Not a sign of a rain cloud anywhere that I could see,

Rainbows are always magic for me. I love the variety, the colours, sometimes getting a double against a very black sky.

It must have rained though and perhaps the cloud had dissipated or was hidden behind the many trees on the west side of my building. I stood for a moment and drank in its unusual beauty - seldom do rainbows occur in the west here, at least not that I've seen lately - perhaps I don't get up early enough?

Then I ran for my camera hoping that I could catch it. While it's much fainter in this photograph than it seemed in "real life," it is still lovely and surprising, hanging over the valley against a blue sky. The sun hadn't even come up over the "mountain" behind me.

The internet - our universal library at our finger tips says that rainbows represent different things to many people - one of the first recorded meanings being in Genesis in the Bible - when God put an arch in the sky to represent a covenant with Noah to not destroy the earth. It is also used as a symbol of unity. I know that the gay/lesbian/transgender communities use it as a symbol as well.

But for me it's a symbol of all the magic in the world, even though much has scientific explanations - often the symbols are pure magic in the delight they offer when they occur suddenly in nature.

So I decided to share this image and the good luck that goes with it with all of you. It was such a nice surprise. Hope you have some neat surprises this day.