Thursday, August 16, 2007

Morning has broken, like the first morning....


With much thanks to Cat Stevens (and the hymnal from which he lifted it) for the lyric, from the song of the same name.


Most people I know are not morning people. They're grumpy when they get up, they'd rather not watch the sun rise, and when the alarm goes off, the snooze button is probably the first thing they hit.


It's been years since I worked a morning drive radio show. It's tough. You get up incredibly early, and are a quarter through your working day by the time most people are getting in the shower. Ray gets up at three a.m., and I used to just roll over and go back to sleep. But the last few days, I've realized how much I miss being out and about early in the morning.


And I've also discovered there's nothing so pretty as a south Georgia morning. I've been trying to take pictures to capture it for you all, but none of the pictures seem to do it justice.


It takes about fifteen minutes to navigate our back roads to get TFYO to school, and another forty-five minutes after that to get from her school to where I work, so I've had plenty of time and miles of countryside to look around me the last few days.


The sky yesterday was a pinky-golden haze, the sun filtered through the morning mist that comes with living in a humid climate. Dew hung on every leaf, every roof, every rural mailbox we drove past on the way to school. The corn is pretty high here, about ready for harvest, or in some cases already taken, with just the stalks left behind. The mist was hanging low in the fields, and gave everything an absolute magical quality. I was amazed at how water droplets reflecting light could make even our old tin-roofed shacks look majestic as I drove past.


It was almost like looking through a pair of rose-tinted glasses wrought by Mother Nature.


I'll see if I can capture some of this on the digital camera for you, but so much of the picture is dependent on the shadows, I'm not sure it's going to work. I suppose you'll all just have to use your imaginations until I can get it right.

9 comments:

willowtree said...

You can try to dress it up as much as you like, but the only good thing about mornings is the sleep-in.

People who like mornings aren't to be trusted. Hell, I hated them so much I stopped working just to get away from them!

Jen said...

Bah, slacker WT! Mornings are hopeful, the day hasn't yet turned to crap, and I can still be happy about what might turn out okay. I am cynical, but not so much that I'm going to cower in dark rooms and forgo the pleasure of stillness that morning can give me. Once everyone else is up, my sense of privacy and quiet is gone!

the rotten correspondent said...

Once I've beaten my snooze alarm into submission and actually gotten my butt out of bed I like mornings well enough. But it has to be light. None of this getting up in pitch black crap.

That's just wrong.

rdwyer said...

Isn't Cat Stevens a terrorist? You may have just put yourself on a watch list of some kind ;)

www.ayewonder.com said...

I am a morning person also. I just can't help it. There's too much to see and do. As that great philospher Warren Zevon said, "I'll sleep when I'm dead."
For whatever its worth, here's a shot I took 2 Mondays ago at sunrise. Similar theme to your own. http://thegrandview.wordpress.com/files/2007/08/img_0030.jpg

Thanks for the lead on the Song Meaning Web Site.

And finally, your one and only Scotland story is now up! ;-)

Anonymous said...

Wow, Ray gets up at 3 a.m.? I finally found someone who gets up earlier than me - I usually laze in bed until 3:30 or so. You make your south Georgia mornings sound so heavenly - makes me think I'd like to go there sometime...then I remembered your "plagues" post from a few days ago. ;-)

Jo Beaufoix said...

Sounds gorgeous Jen, but I'm so not a morning person either.

This is beacause I stay up far too late blogging or reading, then Miss M wakes up about 3am (damn those back molars) and I don't get back to sleep till about 5am.

I do love coming home at night when the stars are out and it's so quiet you can hear the air moving through the trees.

I suppose I'm a bit more of a night owl at the moment, but your mornings do sound fab.

p.s. I kind of have a blog back.
Hooray.

Jen said...

JO!!! So glad to see you're back at you're home, although I tried to comment, and it wouldn't let me :-(

RC Pitch black can be a little daunting, but that glimmer of sun on the horizon kinda makes it worth it for me.

RLOT, since WillowTree seems to think I am untrustworthy anyway, I'm probably already on a watch list. The list is probably something like "Persons who take an unseemly interest in mornings". I'm sure Cat Stevens is on that list, too. And I'm a foreigner, too, so there's a double whammy.

grandview I saw the story, I just hadn't had a chance to comment yet. I was still hoping for something salacious.

jrh Ray gets up that early because he has a forty minute drive to work, and has to be on the air with all of his prep done at 6 a.m. There's a lot of news gathering and audio editing that gets done between 5 and 6. As for the plagues, I have a new one to add, but it will be a blog entry a bit later. And it's lovely here, come visit! We've got some of the best seafood around, seriously. She crab soup is the best.

Susan said...

My husband worked the graveyard shift for a few years and when it was over he said he didn't care how early he had to get up for a job it would be better. He was always great getting up with a baby in the middle of the night and I think the graveyard shift had trained him well.

I love the peace of early morning as well. I love being the only one up. I love getting up at 6 on a Saturday and cleaning before anyone else gets up. But not every Saturday--sometime I like to sleep until seven or eight.

Your description of the morning is WONDERFUL and makes me wish I lived in south Georgia.