Before the dawn

The best part of the day is surely just before the dawn. This is when you will find me outside in the garden, winter and summer, taking the dogs out after a long night's sleeping. Monty and Susie are too old now to negotiate the steep stairs and have to be carried up and down, while Cleo is way ahead and eager to explore the tracks left by night visitors. Being outside at that time of the morning enables me to enjoy the last of the stars and planets before sunrise, and this morning an almost expired moon hung among the branches of the huge gum tree at the side of the road.

The dawn chorus comes from starlings already at the birdfeeder, a couple of cheerful sunbirds and a pair of Egyptian geese down at the rocks. Not all ideal, but birdsong nevertheless. A flock of hadedahs add to the raucous welcome of the sun, and a small plane flies overhead, its pilot and passengers privileged to witness the beauty of dawn over the Peninsula.

The air is still and the ground is still radiating yesterday's warmth through the bricks, giving an illusion of the last days of summer. Yet even in midwinter, the proximity to the sea tempers extremes and it really is quite comfortable outside at dawn. In all the years of taking the dogs out, even on a stormy occasion, I have only once had a little rain falling on us. Nature always ensures my comfort!

Soon fingers of golden light filter down the valley, enhanced by the blues and purples of the backdrop of the Back Table, a breeze rustles the leaves of a branch and a new day has begun.