Be there....

4.30am....so early it still feels like yesterday.....however....having an undeniable inability to 'just go back to sleep' when I waken...no matter what the time...I half-decide / half react to the warm, pale sunlight timidly peering through the window, and quietly rustle some form of clothing to go out and have a wander in the emerging day. 'To the woods' I cry (in an internal whisper).....'and the river' (came the just as silent echo)...and so I find myself padding along the still, quiet curtained street towards the nearby woodland and meandering river it hosts, walking in a vaguely sleepy, but 'isn't this great' awareness....appreciating the whole 'daybreak-ness' of the situation.
A couple of early morning Jackdaws from their chimney-pot perch quizzically cock their beady eyes at my passing, voicing their presence with a brief, almost apologetic "quaar" as I go. I can also hear the occasional cooing of a Pigeon warming up the day light from an unseen roost.

Shortly, I enter the drowsy trees and after a few minutes of soft-treaded meander I stop.....folded into a silent-leafed, dapple-lit woodland grace, I pause and gently wake to the ancient standing world of arborial presence.
I find a welcoming Beech, and sit, cradled at it's feet, my back against it's warm instep, my sleepy gaze soft-focused,  and simply look and listen. The early morning wood is alive.....and awake....with the quiet, gentle murmurings of it's residents beginning to sound out the broadening glow of warming sunlight sifting through the gentle muffled rustle of quivering leaf and friendly reaching branch...and the water-song of the peaceful river underscoring the soft, harmonious chorus.

For a good two hours.....a very, very good two hours....I simply sit and wait. The day emerges all around me and I am blessed to  witness a wonderful natural happening that has remained unchanged for millions of years....and shall, if un-disturbed, continue until time itself ceases.....Daybreak in a Wood is a quietly orchestrated ceremony that is both humble and majestic at the same time.....it cannot be justly reported upon with mere glutteral words. If ever the phrase " you had to be there" was most apt.......
So, I shan't list the sounds and sights and sensations and moods and feelings and experiences and emotions and encounters and ....and....I shall just simply say....if you have not already done so...and you feel you have the capacity to appreciate.....and you  can't get back to sleep.....dress in odd socks, put yer jumper on inside-out....and immerse yerself in an early morning awakening....in every sense....and go to the waking wood.
"You have to be there"....as they say..