Day 17 How are we possibly going to fit in our time outdoors today? I ask my Nick. He and Phoebe are in the backyard planting a vine, a gift from the neighbour. We have had one of those days, haircuts, dentist appointments and errands to run. Ezra needs to be picked up from preschool, dinner needs to be cooked and eaten. There is no time to visit the beach or head to a park, our time outdoors so far is half an hour.
‘I know’ he says ‘ We will eat dinner in the backyard.’ ‘It is a bit cold isn't it?’ I ask. ‘We’ll have a fire!’ he says, a twinkle in his eye. He heads to Bunnings and picks up an outdoor fire pit. The kids play with the box in the backyard for an hour while I throw some veggies in a pot for soup. When I usually would be calling them in I instead invite them to our outdoor table set, beside beautiful flames under the sunset. After we eat the kids climb on to our laps on our hard wood bench seat. I love this seat, a friend made it for us when we first got married. But I am struck with the thought that we have never sat along it together before now. ‘Can we stay out until the stars appear?’ asks Ezra. ‘Sure’ I say. We agree that they can stay out until we can see four stars shinning in the sky.
One for each of us.
It is a cloudy night so they seem to play hide and seek appearing and then disappearing behind the darkening clouds. There have been plenty of times in my life when I have watched pretty sunsets but the focus of those is usually the sun. We live in suburbia so we can’t see the horizon, but watching the stars appear is also glorious. It is like a show that plays out, a dance of the light… the setting sun retreats and gives space for the moon and starts to shine, only barely at first but in time brighter and brighter until the sun completely retreats and they are there in all their glory. It is one of those truely magical moments, and all this on a day when we all went to the dentist. I am starting to think I am going to enjoy this year.
