New Year’s Day and the Dumb Lights

Nature making a much better job of pretty lights than yours truly. Portuguese Man-of-
War at sunset at Henderson Beach FL

The embarrassing wreath I described in this post had been consigned to a dumpster, but I hadn’t given up on the puddling and exasperating lights.

We had made a carelessly arranged Santa’s grotto by plugging in a string of lights and hanging them ’round the bed – the bed that is in our sitting room/dining room which is in the kitchen. The soft glow of the little lights had a kind of artless charm.

But our cozy grotto had to be dismantled each time we moved campsite, which was frequently, as we had neglected to make reservations at this we-now-know busy time of year.

Who wants to go camping for Christmas? Quite a few people as it happens. Those who want to get away for Christmas and those who want to get away from Christmas. And us, because we’d nowhere else to go.

New Year’s Eve was spent at a campsite where you would not choose to go intentionally and the lights did not put in an appearance.

Sunset on the boardwalk. Nature comes up trumps again.

On New Year’s Day we arrived at Henderson Beach State Park on the Gulf coast near Destin. It was a sunny but sheltered site where we could pull out the awning. When I say we, I mean I busied myself with the awning and Plan C for the lights while Jimmy fiddled around with inconsequential things like unhitching the trailer from the car and plugging us in to the mains and water.

With the awning extended and pulled down where I could reach it, I wrapped the lights around one strut, strung them across the top of the awning and then down and around the other strut. I hadn’t anticipated needing to open and close the door, so had to take down and rearrange all 46 feet of lights so I could raise the awning a little.

That accomplished I waited for darkness. Very pretty.

The next day thunderstorms were predicted and as we were going out for the day we had to furl up the awning. So the lights came down. But never mind. I strung them through the bushes next to us. Very pretty.

The next day the park ranger came to our site to tell us that we couldn’t hang the lights from the vegetation. But never mind. I took them down and strung them along the washing line next to the trailer. Very pretty.

The next day we had to move the trailer to another site within the campground. Of course the lights had to come down. At the new site . . . well the washing line post was a long way from the trailer, but I hung them up anyway, looping them right across our campsite so they were dragging on the ground.

They looked stupid.

But never mind, it was Twelfth Night, so I took them down.

Admiring the sunset instead of fretting over Christmas lights. Notice the nasty stinging little Portuguese Man-of-War still twinkling appealingly on the wet sand.

Happy New Year to all my friends, relictives (haha) and bloggy pals.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful new year.