Wake up world

This week has been all about getting up at 6.30am. It’s been much easier for some reason (must be hitting the right point in my sleep cycle to wake up). The big test was my Saturday morning. My blissful lie in morning. Well, it’s Saturday, and I’m up. I got up at 6.35 (5 minute lie in), came downstairs, wrote in my journal, and then I just had to get outside. The sun was rising, the sky lightening, and I wanted to go for a walk.

It’s so magical walking early in the morning. I’ve written about this previously, usually when I’m on my way to some exotic location and I have to be up early to get the bus to the airport. But today there was no ulterior motive. It was simply to enjoy the sunrise. Or to enjoy those first moments of the waking world, when there is no one around. Just me and the birds.

So I took a walk, around my neighbourhood. It’s still relatively new to me. I am used to walking the familiar routes between my road and the high street, the bus stop, the supermarkets. But I’ve never really walked further than a few streets over, so today I just walked, basically where my feet took me, but largely towards the sunrise.

It was a crisp and misty morning, so the sunrise was more of a gradual lightening and pinking of the sky. The mist gave a surreal but mysterious quality to my walk. The bird song was incredible, all sorts of squeaking and sqwarking as territories were claimed on electricity wires and eves of houses. I followed the maze of streets and then took a footpath along a path, discovering recreational grounds and churches, and allotments and graveyards. A couple alleys lead me deeper into a maze of older stone buildings. A few upstairs lights on, steam chuffing from house pipes, the world is waking up.

I was fascinated by the different types of houses, it’s a chance to really look at the buildings and take your time observing your surroundings. Interesting things in people’s front gardens, strange creeping plants along the side of the road. Bright red berries littered on the path, dew drops hanging heavy on bushes and branches.

The beautiful gift of a new day.

Gradually, as I walked, I could see the light blues and pinks emerge from the misty morning sky. The once very occasional whoosh of a car, and brief flicker of headlights in the mist, then became more of a constant rumble. The sounds of humanity were starting to drown out the sounds of birdsong. The moment was over, it was time for me to turn back down those alleys and head for home…

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Four thirty

It’s not every day I’m up at four thirty. The thought last night was quite horrific, buy maybe my circadian rhythms are working for me as right now I feel pretty good.
I’m on my way t o London those morning, having to be at my desinaction by 7, hence the early start. And I’m loving the four thirty. It’s this secret place in time; too late for student revellers, too early for the early risers. There are only a few lonely souls shuffling the streets at this time, other than that I pretty much have the place to myself.
Even the traffic lights are sleeping. With their eyes open at least, stuck on a permanent green in one direction. It’s been a while since a car passed…
The only sounds are the gentle drips as the night rain slowly drains away, an occasional twitter from a confused bird and every now and then a background hum. A far off train. Some people really do commute at this time, it seems.
There are a few lights on in houses I pass – not many, but a few. I guess why… Making toast after a night out, ending the night shift or starting the day, sleeping with the light on…?
It’s beautiful, it’s tranquil, and for a short short time it’s all mine.
Now it’s five am and the cars are more frequent, ripping up the peace. A few cyclists and some new shadows at my bus stop. I’ve rapidly transistioned into the bonafide morning now. It’s over. And so the day begins…

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Morning sunshine!

This morning I’m waking up to the crashing of waves on a long and wild Atlantic coast. Thanks once more to jet lag, I’m also up early enough to experience a beautiful sunrise that should be shared.

I’m on Kure beach, in Wilmington, North Carolina, spending a lucky weekend, snatched in front of a business trip, with two good friends. We’re staying in a condo – a beach house, in a long line of perfectly painted houses that stretch along this patch of coast. It is a dream of mine to live in a beach house (ever since falling in love with the house in Sleeping with the Enemy!), and now, for a couple of days, I am living the dream!

There are small clutches of fishermen strung out along the shore and a few early risers walk in the foam. A flock of bird skims the pink water, reflecting back our beautiful sunrise. And I’m perched on a wicker chair, breathing in the wet, salty sea air, thinking of friends and family out over the ocean, who could also be looking up at this same sun (if it’s not cloaked in clouds!) and already be well into their days.

Good morning sunshine, good morning world, I hope you have a wonderful day!

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