Quiet Morning
When I am camping, I usually wake early, when the sun begins to come up and the birds start singing outside my tent. It's a natural time to start the day. I also go to bed early. When I start a camping trip, I very easily fall into Nature's rhythms, my sleeping and waking hours adjusting to the cycle of day and night. I tend to lose awareness of time as measured by clocks and other artificialities. Life becomes simpler and flows more gently.
On this particular morning, I was up with the sun and the birds. I made coffee and had a leisurely breakfast, and was out with a camera, strolling beside the lake, before the morning mist had fully lifted and bright sunshine found its way beyond the shoulder of the mountain into the forest. Across the lake, at the distant eastern shore, I saw this pair of tall conifers, standing like twin sentinels beside the lake, and captured their portrait through the early morning haze.
On my recent adventure, I was awakened at various camps by jays, quail, woodpeckers, wild turkeys, warblers, crows, and ravens, among others. Usually they started their calls to welcome the new day sometime between 5:30 and 6:00am. I always welcomed the sound, and looked forward to the day. Their wake-up call made me smile.
The day after I returned home, a lawn mower next door woke me at 8:00, screaming outside my bedroom window. It is a very strange and unwelcome adjustment.