Sun

I don't think I'll ever be as thankful for my car breaking down again. It forced me to take public transport into work, getting up earlier than usual and getting home about an hour later than usual. This meant that I  was lucky enough to see the first lights of sunrise and the last huge blaze of sunset. 

It's interesting to feel how contemplative these two times of day can make you. Maybe it's because there's that simple smooth transition between the dark cool solitary hush and the workaday glare filled with cars, computers and people. It's no wonder some cultures worshipped the sun, with its incredible powers to revive and warm. 

I found a magpie sitting on the powerlines that morning, unfazed by my presence, warbling to its mate, the single sound of the morning. Sun revived that sound, and revives it every morning.

Autumn Berries

There's a tree outside my window that really shows to me that autumn's here. Every March, after a short burst of late summer white flowers, its branches suddenly weigh heavily with scarlet berries. I wake up one morning and the tree is laden and sagging overnight. They're not edible berries (at least for me), but for the short period the berries appear, birds eat them from dawn to dusk. They're usually wattle birds, but sometimes there are pigeons, blackbirds and Indian minars. It's pleasant to watch the birds, usually so territorial and aggressively loud, eat berries together and then laze sated under the tree in the afternoon sun.