Day Three Before The Dawn

I was up at 0400 this morning. My body clock has re-adjusted itself in the wrong direction! It was worth it though because the sky before the dawn was on fire. I should explain that the photos are taken looking East towards the mainland of Scotland. The mountains in the background are the Scottish Highlands of Western Sutherland.

Just before the sun rises over the headland.

The Door

On my blog A Hebridean In New Zealand I posted In My Eagleton Home a few days ago. It sparked a comment from Scriptor Senex about The Door. Let me explain. The Door is the door to my garage whish faces Spesh's house. The Door is, as you can see, painted a subtle shade of red (which happened to be what I had available on the day I decided to paint it). Spesh and I live on opposite sides of a valley. We are 1.5 kilometres or .6 of a mile apart iin a straight line. On a clear day with 20:20 vision and binoculars my garage door can be seen from Spesh's house. I like my red door. Spesh hates it with a passion.

I would not usually question Spesh's judgement (I'm not brave enough). But she thinks sheep are cute. 'Nuff said.

Day Two Dawns

I never get tired if the view from my study. I'm sure that if the first few days have spectacular dawns you will share in them whether you like it or not but don't worry, I'll stop after three days - promise (fingers crossed behind my back of course - quite a feat when typing).

Was That The Night?

I woke this morning at 0521 (the digital clock syndrome - twenty past five doesn't exist any more) and decided that going back to sleep would be unlikely so I did what I have done for most of my life: woke up and got up within a minute of each other. You really wanted to know that didn't you? I am sooo fortunate in that I don't suffer, and never have, from jet-lag. I wonder why? Perhaps it's something to do with the fact that I've never needed very much sleep and when do I sleep, I sleep!

It was light anyway. In sharp contrast to N Z where the days were shortening, here the days are lengthening.

Napier

At 0557 (according to the time on the camera) I took the following picture from the Study. The sun was just creeping over the headland.

I have been wandering around this HUGE house (it's not but it feels like it after The Cottage because everything is relative and this house has grown higgledy piggledy over nigh on 90 years) trying to work out what to do, where everything is and how to fit all that I need to do into the day. So why am I sitting here typing this when there are so many other things to be done? Because this is what I enjoy. This is what I want to do. I want to do some of the other things too but on the whole they are things I need to do. There's a world of a difference. Here my life is less structured for the most part than in N Z. Why? Simple. No croquet!

Faced with the CD 'bookcase' I even had a problem trying to decide which music to play. Which is silly because it's actually visually easier to choose here than it is from the iPod.

I started off withMozart's Requiem and am now on his Mass in C minor K427. It seems to have that sort of frenetic energy that is me this morning. It also has other memories but that may be for another posting and another time.

I can't get over how fast the broadband connection here is. Having paid an absolute fortune by comparison for my mobile broadband in Napier (which I have to pay for for 12 months of the year to add insult to financial injury) which is not that much faster than dial-up but which is at least available all the time without tying up my phone and will allow larger downloads.

The weather is magical here this morning with not a single cloud from vast horizon to vast horizon. I hope, Pat, that you are up and appreciating the gift I've brought from my Other Home. At 0555? Perhaps not. The forecast is fantastic too:

Mind you Napier's forecast isn't so bad either and apparently everyone's been back in shorts since I left:

Ah well. I suppose I'd better go and get on with the day. I'm sure there will be another posting soon.