Night

It gets properly dark here. No streetlight, no glow from a nearby town, nothing artificial to soften it. Your eyes take twenty minutes or so to adjust.

The forest does not go quiet when the light goes. It changes over. The birds and insects of the day give way to frogs calling from the creek and the damp edges of the garden. You will see a firefly now and then. Something moves in the undergrowth, usually a bandicoot.

Nothing competes with any of it. No hum of appliances and no lights pulling your eye away.

The outdoor shower at night is worth the trip outside: water on your skin, open sky above you, and nobody to see you.

There is nothing to do with any of this except notice it. Sit outside for a while before bed, let your eyes adjust, and listen.

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