Day 52: Insomniac Dawn

Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, MA, 6:30am-7:10am
cold, windy, overcast and low clouds

A post-insomnia sunrise is a different experience from a post-sleep sunrise.

After almost no sleep last night, I was in fog this morning- a weird throwback to incidental sunrises from my college days. Everything felt a far away and filtered, like I was intoxicated.

It was the perfect sunrise to wow such a state of mind : a little bit psychedelic, with garishly bright and intense colors saturated in a hemisphere at the horizon. A low layer of clouds made the horizon feel closer and the sky more intimate, as the colors reached out and practically touched me.

Amazing. Or was I high on fatigue?

Then there was a color-retraction as the sun actually rose, as if the sun sucked all the vivid hues back into itself in order to emerge, simply, in bright and orange to a pale sky.

It's nice that the sunrise never disappoints - the transition from dark to light is always powerful - but I can't say the same for birds.

Couldn't find anyone interesting or new today, and was sobered to hear how quiet Peters Hill has become, compared to a month ago. Winter is definitely on its way...do I have it in me to record 20 chickadees??

Even a tree full of robins didn't have much to say. There is a new urgency in the quiet focus with which they consume their berries.
(recording pending)