Five bells and all's well.

It is 5a.m. and I am sitting on the edge of my bed, a mug of coffee in my hand. I have had a good sleep. I can hear the world slowly waking up.

Before I made my coffee I heard the kookaburras saying good morning to all who are awake. Their raucous laugh is a warning to other kookaburras to keep their distance, this is my territory, and also perhaps a warning to all the bugs to beware, I am hungry. Click on the link the hear what a kookaburra sound like. You've probably never head a bird like this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Op4PZzwwU

The black veil of night is slowly lifting. As if from a giant spray can the  dull grey light of dawn is settling down on the land. It is very still, there is no movement in the air. It is still quite warm. I turn on the radio to see what the temperature is only to find that daylight saving started in New South Wales last night and they are ahead of Queensland by an hour. For the next six months, if you live on the New South Wales and Queensland border, you will do battle with living in two time zones.

From the side of my bed I can see my desk, laptop open, dictionaries at the ready, and a document tray overflowing with projects in hand. The contents of this tray are supposed to reduce in size, but is getting larger by the day. Behind the desk is a large ranch slider that faces west and looks out into the front garden. There is a large concrete veranda outside the door. The house we are currently house sitting was built in 1973, Spanish style, with orange plastered exterior walls and three large archways that  lead from the veranda to the lawn.

I can see the camellia tree and on the other side of the lawn, maybe 4 or 5 meters away, a tall hedge of some native plant with red pompom flowers here and there. The mango tree in full flower is now visible. On the other side of this hedge the orange and purple bougainvillea flowers are cascading down.

I can see the trunks of many trees, one in particular is a gum about 40 or 50 feet high, its sparse canopy way up out of sight, its pale sandy colored trunk is emerging out of the gloom. A half moon is up there, slowly losing the battle of supremacy over the night sky. There is no doubt who will be the winner; the moon has never been able to outshine the sun.

A few birds are lifting their heads from under their wings and stirring. I can hear a ‘whoop whoop’ but I don’t know which bird that is. There is a repetitive tweet tweet from a few mynahs. Some other bird has started chirping, slowly at first then gradually winding up as if he has taken lessons from the propeller of a wind-up aeroplane.

The natural shape of the land around here is sort of saucer shaped. Not far away, in the  hollow where the cup would sit, there is a small lake. I can hear the geese from this lake honking their morning greetings to the world.

As I write, the air is taking on a pink hue, the sun must be lifting its head up over the hill to the east, letting the glow suffuse the air. It’s going to be another fabulous clear day, no clouds to be seen.

I can hear the pied butcher birds distinctive call, and yes, here it comes, the easily recognizable screeching from some rainbow lorikeets.

Pied butcher bird. en.wikipedia.org.

 The rainbow lorikeets are the noisiest bossiest birds around here. This link will give you some noisy lorikeets feeding. They are beautiful birds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtSCv--pRho

 In the distance I hear the screech of a sulphur crested cockatoo.For a picture of a cockatoo go back a few posts to the one about birds in our garden. A galah has just flown in, landed on the grass, stretching his wings and looking for some breakfast.

Galah. These birds fly free all around Australia. Below you can see his beautiful colouring under the wings.

en.wikipedia.org 

      australianmuseum.net.au

The sun has just risen over the hill, enough for its light to fall on the tree tops over the other side of the ‘saucer’. The sky is now the palest light blue tinged with gold. Having got this dawn snapshot onto paper I will go back to bed and see if I can snatch a few more minutes sleep.

Once the sun is properly up the front lawn is like this below.  I call this the front lawn because it is a flat area around the house itself. On the other side of this hedge and trees is another large grassy sloping area down to the road, but it is not visible from my room.

It is now seven bells and all’s well.

http://suite101.com/article/ship-watches-and-bells-a21555