The sound of silence...

(I am such a cliche user...)

This morning the kids and myself jumped in the car for an appointment a 1/2hr away. We hadn't left our town for ages (months!) so Nathan was just buzzing about all the things he saw - I had my ear yabbered off for 15mins solid (the trains, the forest, the oil tanker in front of us and it's ladder going up the back, the hill we went up, who lived in the direction we were driving, the South Island we could see over yonder, the ferry (and not fairy lol), our local island out in the sea - seriously, nothing new that we don't see everyday anyway!) and then it reduced to just intermittent discussion. But boy, was I worn out with the questions and *my* constant talking in response. I love that his little brain is so active, inquisitive, curious and intelligent and I'm constantly in awe at the speed that he's wanting to take it all in. Danielle my quieter child can sit quietly an entire trip (although, nothing to brag about since she has now been diagnosed with two glue ears hence the appointment).

So, after lunch and while Danielle was napping, we went down to the garden for a look at the seedlings. I picked up the fork and started to dig around below the trellised area and thought it might be a good spot for my beans that were still on my windowsill and absolutely bursting out of their seed mix.

The silence was just beautiful as I dug and dug - the only sounds I could hear were birds chirping and the chickens foraging and scratching - the day was *the* most beautiful winters day (if you could even call it that, it truely was spring-like) with no wind and gorgeous sun on my back, a chill in the air but not cold. There was even a moment in time when there were no neighbourhood dogs barking (ours included) and no aeroplanes flying overhead since we are on the flightpath for the local airport. The surrounding silence seemed to have a flow on effect for Nathan too. He wasn't talking, he was just busy climbing his tree, crushing clods of soil, picking buds off a branch that was sitting on the compost pile and just hanging out in companionable silence.

Bliss!

(And just coz I am trying to torture myself, the overnight low tonight is meant to be 7 degrees, however, I just popped out in Simon's car to get takeaways and his thermometer read 5 degrees).