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Darkness and silence

Filed in Rocks, nature & life - June 15, 2007

I have just been watching a very beautiful pink, orange and blue sunset. Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; I have just looked up the science behnd that, such as it is. It is now 11pm and still light enough to see colours outside. When is gets dark, it will be very dark, subject to the phase of the moon and the starlight.

It also almost completely silent, or would be if I hadn’t put the dishwasher on. I have got so used to the silence that I have nearly given up music. I love Bach, but I love the silence even more. When I open the window, I will be able to hear the river, but only just at this time of the year. It hasn’t rained for a couple of days; it has been mostly sunny today, with a gentle but persistent north-easterly breeze to keep the midgies away and make sure I got my feet wet when I watered some new plantings with the hose earlier.

How lucky to be able to live here, but get to a city at the drop of an easyHat, and do philosophy and buy books online in the meanwhile. It seems counterintuitive that I should be happy when I’m starting my 4th go of chemo next week and have nearly exhausted the available cytotoxics, but I am, mostly, and when I’m not there is nearly always an obvious physical cause. There is no merit in this; I was born with a default state of happiness, I think.

4 Comments

  1. morag says:

    mm. Here is is light nearly all night; if yo get up for a pee you see the sheep grazing away and the lambs climbing on to whatever is higher than just field. How lucky, C,. to see these things, and tell folk about them

    June 17, 2007 @ 10:20 pm

  2. BadAunt says:

    How I envy you your surroundings. I don’t think we’ve had a clear sky more than once or twice in the last month, even on cloudless days. I’m sure the pollution is getting worse. And I’ve forgotten what silence sounds like.

    Sometimes I think the only thing that keeps me here is inertia. That might be a cynical end-of-semester thought, but I’m never sure whether all that means is that I’m too optimistic the rest of the time.

    June 29, 2007 @ 2:53 pm

  3. crmj says:

    Not The Man?

    July 5, 2007 @ 5:54 pm

  4. BadAunt says:

    Well, yes. The Man, too, although he’d be willing to live elsewhere. It’s more his mum. She’s getting on a bit, and someone’s got to be here for her.

    July 16, 2007 @ 6:13 am

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