Peace on Earth

No, I'm not doing an EXTRA-early Christmas post. Although we're already getting Easter-related ads on TV (can't they leave us season-less for just a little while???).

Rather, the peace on earth is what I experience a tiny slice of this morning.

While school is on, I have a half-hour between when my son leaves for school and when I leave for work. I miss that time of quiet aloneness when it's school holidays.

This morning I made full use of the moments by eating breakfast outside in the early-morning sunshine. With a big cup of fresh coffee in hand, I had time to sit and watch the natural world go by - and it was a riot of birdlife!

Within the space of 10 minutes I had received visits (up really close!) from 3 starlings, a flock of mouse birds (mice birds?), 4 shrikes ("jackie hangers"), a hoepoe, 2 white-eyes, 2 sunbirds, a skein of geese and a bulbul. Many were in the small mulberry tree right over my head, no more than a metre or so away. On calm, warm mornings like this they all come out to play and eat and throw up glitters of water in the birdbath.

I'm a lover of simple pleasures. A sunny morning full of birdlife is one of them. It's a soul-feeder, a calmer of worried minds, a feel-good happy start to what will likely be a busy day full of stress.

I don't think I'd survive living in a concrete jungle.