BENEATH A BLUE SKY

The angels had to finish my night prayers....man, was I whipped when my head hit the pillow at 12:30 a.m.  All day long my mind was set on 'puree' speed, until I sat out on the deck to read, "The Secret Life of Sunflowers."  Evidently a good book is still the cure-all for the rambunctious brain.  While sitting outside, I took this photo of the sky.  What a fine metaphor for regaining perspective and a sense of peace.

Speaking of the sky......

• There's an average of 9,728 planes carrying 1,270,406 passengers in the sky at any given time.  Yup, over a million.
• Planes have headlights, but they're only effective during takeoffs and landings.  Only darkness is visible when looking out the front window of a cockpit.
• The world's longest flight:  New York JFK to Singapore Changi is currently the longest flight it is possible to book.  Takes an average of 18 hours and 40 minutes to complete the 9,532-mile flight.
• 
  The shortest scheduled passenger flight in the world is between Westray (pronounced Westree) and Papa Westray located off the far north coast of Scotland.  Distance 1.7 miles and takes about 57 seconds to complete. 
• Westray is Old Norse for "West Island."   Papa was the word used by Norsemen to identify the early Christian monks who arrived in about 800 AD. 
• The Knap of Howar on Papa Westray is a Neolithic farmstead which may be the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe.  Radiocarbon dating shows it was occupied from 3700 BC to 2800 BC.  The Neolithic, or new Stone Age, included the introduction of farming, domestication of animals and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement.   

  

  Knap of Howar
  The front of the structures facing the sea.

  Having myself lived the first eight years of my childhood in a 3-story old stone house, my fascination for stone structures is rooted to my core.  When on our trolleys, if we come across old stone skeletons, the boyfriend knows to either stop the car or turn the car around.  Just two weeks ago we were out and about, when I noticed these stone remains.....

These stone remains make a perfect playground for my excitable imagination.  One can only let the mind explore the possibilities of what went on within these walls of stone.  Do these leftovers from a past existence survive so we take notice?  Maybe that's how we are, too, as we grow older and less needed.  We don't just want to disappear and not leave a hint of ourselves behind.