Early Morning Walks

Picture of Venus this morning. Please excuse the quality, it was taken with my phone camera and no tripod. You can sort of see the tree in the right foreground.

While I do not, and don't believe I ever will, enjoy getting up at 4:15 in the morning, I do like walking at that time of the morning. It is always so quiet and somnolent, well at least from a human perspective. Much of the local wildlife is more active at that time. I get to see rabbits frolicking every morning. I've seen raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and even skunks (though I could probably do without those last animals). I've watched owls flying silently past me. I've heard lots of other critters scurrying in the underbrush. The other morning I heard a pack of coyotes yipping in the distance. The sound of the crickets is practically the soundtrack for that time of the morning.

I nearly always hear the train whistle blowing in the distance. I often hear the wind in the leaves, and feel the gentle breeze as I walk. The sky has been clear pretty much every morning recently, so I've had amazing views of the stars and constellations. Venus has been exceptionally bright lately, and this morning was at the apex of its brightness.

While there's a big part of me that would rather be asleep in bed, the silver lining in this particular cloud is getting to be outdoors enjoying nature in near solitude. There are a few houses in the neighborhood with lights on, but the vast majority are still dark when I walk. It's one of the only times I can truly feel alone outdoors in my suburban neighborhood. I occasionally see another walker or jogger, and they usually have a headlamp on. While I get the safety concerns (the creek that runs behind our house is dark, especially when the trees are leafed out and there's no moon), I don't want to interrupt nature and destroy my night vision so I avoid them as much as possible on the rare occasion when I see someone else.

So while I end up operating on less sleep than I would prefer, I am grateful for my early morning walks. When I get a chance to sleep in, I'm much more likely to get on my treadmill rather than go outside because it's just not as magical to walk when everyone else is out and about too.