“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.”
~ Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
Our farm is usually a tranquil place first thing in the morning. There’s the dawn chorus, with its multitude of birdsongs. Perhaps the lowing of a cow, and the rustle of the wind in the trees.
But this morning the soundscape was a little different.
Instead of tranquility we had loud girly screams.
And yes, I was the source of those screams.
Why?
I put one foot into my left gumboot, and my bare toes found… instead of bare space… something squishy and cold and wriggly and wrong.
A toad.
Yep. I screamed. A good girly scream. I wasn’t expecting that big cane toad to be in my boot.
Gathering my wits I tipped that toad out and put my boot on. Then gently eased my right foot into the other boot.
Erk! Something slimy, gross and stinky.
Harry had retrieved a bone from the walk-through-cow, a long dead animal down on the flats – the dog equivalent of a MacDonalds drive-through. To stop Bert finding it, Harry hid it in my right gumboot.
I took the hint and decided not to go for a walk. Instead I opted for a nice hot shower to warm up.
And that was the source of girly scream number three.
A gigantic huntsman spider dropped off the shower rose and onto my head. This was actually the scream that woke the world up!
After which he calmly climbed back up to his original spot.
And no, I haven’t managed to have a shower yet.
I’m going to have a calming cup of tea instead.
So not cool…
