Temporary? Insanity

This post comprises two e-mails I once wrote. They’re a bit off the beaten track, but I kind of like the feel of them and wanted to share.

Good morning…

It’s quarter after five in the morning, and I’ve just been up feeding Becca. I don’t like to go to bed immediately at times like this, as she doesn’t always settle right back to sleep. So I putter around a bit…lay out dishes for breakfast, that sort of thing. Sometimes I give up on sleep and simply stay up.

I would never have believed I could enjoy early mornings as much as I have since moving here, but there’s so much beauty in them. One of the lovely peculiarities of this house is the enormous windows which face our backyard. They look out over trees and pastureland, and a small lake at the bottom of the pasture. Our view of the lake is somewhat obscured by the trees, but it’s still a lovely sight. Marred somewhat by the deep throaty whirrings of a piece of construction equipment warming up next door, but nevertheless.

This morning it’s cool and misty out, and fog is rising in curling tendrils up off the surface of the water. The birds are chirping in that incessant way of theirs (you’d think they could learn a new song every now and again), and the sky is a clear pale blue, with only one small cloudbank, and that tinged a pale pink by the sun’s slow rising over the mountains in the distance. I can hear horses nickering. It is so amazing to me that I now live somewhere I can hear horses and chickens and the like, instead of traffic.

It’s so dry here compared to, well, to just about everywhere I’ve ever lived before (I was going to say home, I admit it). Our first week here saw our whole family suffering from chapped lips and frizzy hair. We’re slowly acclimatizing, but it’s a difficult adjustment. During the hot spells, the sun here just bakes. You step outside and you can literally feel the moisture being stripped from your body. These heat waves are short lived though, and have been interspersed with several cloudy, and severely windy days. I’ve become quite fond of the windy days, despite the mess they make of our deck. We’ve a large number of poplar trees on the property, and I love the swooshy sound of the wind thrashing them about. I’ve finally given up thinking up excuses to go outside at such times, and just revel in the feel of the wind thrashing me about as well.

Sometimes I think I’m growing my hair long solely for the purpose of feeling the wind in it.

Becca is still quiet, and the horses have moved on. I’m going to take that as I sign to do the same. I haven’t said much of import, but shall bother with all that another time. I just didn’t want to shake this early morning feeling quite yet. It’s still so new to me (I do catch on slowly, don’t I?) and I want to savor it.

Good Evening…

Some of you may know that I think those words cry out to be delivered in a thick Transylvanian accent. And the weather here certainly is portentious enough to warrant it.

It’s absolutely lovely at the moment. You have to understand my love of storms to understand the use of the word “lovely” though.

The sky is dark and broody, and the wind is thrashing the trees about in a deliciously wild fashion. Rain has been pelting down in irregular spurts as rolling thunder shakes the darkening landscape, and sheets of lightning briefly illuminate the scene.

I couldn’t resist. I hurriedly threw on my slippers and dashed out onto the deck to enjoy the ferocity of it. The rain was just starting up again, and I had one of those moments where a big fat raindrop smacked me dead centre of my forehead with an accuracy I simply had to laugh at.

I’m ashamed to admit that the rain drove me back inside, but it was a wonderful, emboldening experience. I felt like laughing and shouting and dancing all in one moment. Storms bring out a liveliness and gaiety in me that I seldom display.

And now it’s off to bed to fall asleep as the storm sounds crash about outside. The house has storm windows built in, which means most of the sounds are kept out. But for awhile at least, I’m keeping the window open.