We were driving east on Sunrise Highway, heading toward daybreak. The sun was just beginning its ascent over the eastern tip of Long Island before its daily march west.

The sky stretched out before us in all its early morning glory. Wisps of pink clouds were wrapped like tendrils around long horizontal bands of violet and mauve, with the grayish blue of dawn as a backdrop. It made me realize that the purple mountain majesties of our Western ranges have nothing on the purple puffy majesties of our Eastern skies.

But within a few minutes, that gorgeous tableau of muted tones was gone.

That same day, late in the afternoon, we were at a playground with our granddaughter. The sky was its usual deep blue speckled with fluffy white clouds. Our granddaughter was on the swings looking skyward when she exclaimed, "A rainbow!" We were skeptical because it had not been raining, nor was any storm expected. But there it was, a small curved section of a rainbow........

© Newsday