Winter's Bubble Magic: A Taste of Paradise

We've been having a run of very cold nights in central Pennsylvania, and the breeze-free mornings have been good for frozen bubble making. I went out between 8:30 and 9 a.m., while the temps were in the single digits F, and spent about 15 minutes making bubbles in the sunniest part of the front yard, not far from Barb's butterfly garden. (I think that something so silly and so fun would have pleased her.)

I wanted to try two different shots. One was that I wanted some of my bubbles right down against the snowy landscape. Two was that I took a few of my creatures along (hello, Jeweled Stag!), thinking I might pose them looking adoringly at my beautiful bubbles.

Well, I put my bubble gear down on the ground, and realized right away that my angle wasn't right to capture the light through the bubble the way I like. I couldn't get behind/underneath the bubble to shoot it; I'd have had to lie down on the ground. I also realized I had to pick up my base and Christmas ball and slime them with bubble mix each time, before blowing my bubble on top, then placing the whole thing back down on the ground.

Everything was sticky and messy, and I ended up without my gloves, and just totally covered in stickiness. Not so great, actually, and I ended up deleting most of those shots, but above is one of my better efforts, once I moved my gear to a nearby stump. It was also not any fun getting up and down off my knees in the snow and ice, with all those clothes on. (Think of a little kid, all stiff, with 6 layers on; yeah, like that.)

I brought my Jeweled Stag out and placed him beside my bubble blowing gear, which consists of a container on the bottom, a clear Christmas ball in the middle, and then the bubble gets blown on top. My poor little Jeweled Stag was so tiny that it was nowhere NEAR my bubble. "I'm gonna need STILTS, Mom!" said the Stag. So much for magical gazing balls. Either I've gotta get my bubble down to the Stag's eye level, or I've gotta find him some elevator lifts.  :-)

Then I went online and found a lovely bubble someone ELSE had made, which had PURPLE tones in it, and I was jealous. I've gotten out the food coloring, just in case I feel like trying something new! (What if I mix blue and red food colors in? What if I drop a droplet of color on top of the bubble just as it's starting to freeze? What if?)

When I am blowing my bubbles, I am completely engaged in both art AND science. While my hands and feet might be chilly on occasion, if the bubbles are crystallizing, I am typically having a wonderful time, helping to create more of winter's magic. It's a taste of paradise for me. (But a very COLD paradise, to be sure!)

That was first thing in the morning. Later in the day, I learned the sad news that the singer Meat Loaf had passed away. His 1977 album Bat Out of Hell was one of the formative albums of my young adulthood. Clocking in at just 7 songs and 47 minutes, every single one is a power hitter.

The album includes perhaps its most famous offering, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, which we listened to with titillation and glee, even before we had much of an idea of what was going on (hey, I was 12 when it came out, so sue me). And that one about offering your throat to the wolf with the red roses. Yeah, baby!  (And I bet you say that to ALL the boys.)

But some of the best stuff on the album, for me, at least, were its powerful rock love ballads, including Heaven Can Wait, Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, and For Crying Out Loud. Any one of those can getcha right in the feels. Oh, and a thing I learned when I read the news is that a couple of E Streeters also appear on Bat Out of Hell. Hello, keyboardist Roy Bittan and drummer extraordinaire Mighty Max Weinberg! I did not know that!

So, in honor of Meat Loaf (also known as Marvin Lee Aday), for whom heaven apparently couldn't wait, here is perhaps my favorite song from the album Bat Out of Hell, Heaven Can Wait. Here is a link to the lyrics, which are just as gorgeous as anything I've ever heard. Go well, sir. Thank you for the beautiful music.

Here are the first two verses of Heaven Can Wait. Lyrics by Jim Steinman.

Heaven can wait,
And a band of Angels wrapped up in my heart,
Will take me through the lonely night,
Through the cold of the day.
And I know, I know,
Heaven can wait,
And all the gods come down here just to sing for me,
And the melody's gonna make me fly,
Without pain, without fear.

Give me all of your dreams,
And let me go along on your way.
Give me all of your prayers to sing,
And I'll turn the night into the skylight of day.
I got a taste of paradise,
I'm never gonna let it slip away.
I got a taste of paradise,
It's all I really need to make me stay
Just like a child again.

Bonus link: posting that contains a compilation of my frozen bubble making tips.