Another Pair Of Eyes

Starsleeper

I woke up at 4:36 this morning into bright daylight, and upon opening my eyes was confronted with a sea of grass. I blinked twice, and the grass was real. Smelt like grass too. I rolled on to my back and stared into the sky. To eyes used to the dim shades of unconsciousness, every colour seemed twice as vivid as normal. The sky glowed.

Suddenly my ears followed my mind into consciousness and the entire scene was accompanied by birdsong from every direction. The wind rustled in the grass and sent waves of it past me. I blinked, and against the backs of my eyelids I saw that same sky above me studded with stars.

…

The last two paragraphs took place over a duration of about 5 seconds, but they were such a surreal few seconds, such an intense few seconds, that they deserve those paragraphs and more. I slept under the stars last night, far from the haze of Southampton, and the sky was just so stunning that every time I closed my eyes, I just had to open them again. I’ve never slept so little (12-4) and felt so refreshed by it. Outside is amazing =) and so is the whole camping malarkey. Little is more fun than the games and the banter and the sense of camarderie that you get with a trip out with friends, BBQing food and knocking a ball around and generally wandering the countryside.

Now, my legs ache with 10 miles of micro-tears. Despite the fact that at this moment it is only quarter to nine in the evening I am still abed. I don’t plan to sleep yet – a bed in a room, four walls, ceiling, floor: it seems so limiting somehow. My limbs, however, are grateful for the break in running about and are settling in happily to a ever-warmer mattress. The afterburn heat on the back of my neck marks the sun’s less-than-careful touch. My head is full of croquet, and rounders, and walking to the pub, and the ever-repeating image of a night sky studded with stars (I miss the stars when I’m in Southampton. They are so dull here…).

Addendum: I am now awake (good times) and so I thought I’d add a bit here I meant to write yesterday. I really reckon we are supposed, as humans, to rise with the sun and sleep with the dark. Not just almost, but sort of slinking away with the dusk and waking before the sun is up, but when its light. It was SO good and SO natural-feeling to wake up at 4:30am outside that I can’t help but want to sleep outside every day because it makes getting up so easy. Shame about the rain, huh.

In other news, does anyone have any ideas how to describe my blog in six words? Sum it up, lay it down? Suggestions welcome!