The List of Things To Do; 1 – Dawn on WinGreen Hill.

Over the summer, C and I have taken to opening the patio doors wide before we go to bed, lying on our backs in the doorway and watching the stars and chatting.
Although we spend most of our days in each others company, it is these last hours before bed that we have both come to cherish – as the nights have grown chillier and damper we have simply added a spare duvet and more cushions, and stayed up far too late, far too often as we watch the sky (or listen to the rain) and talk and talk.

On one such night, a few weeks ago, we started talking about things we never seem to get around to doing. Things we each have at the back of our brain to ‘do sometime‘. Not big things, not necessarily ‘life-changing’ things – just ‘things’ that we don’t want to suddenly wake up and find we’re too late for. It’s amazing how you can be married to someone for 20 years, and yet still be surprised by them – we each suggested things the other hadn’t considered, and we grew quite excited at the small adventures and little experiences list as it took shape.

And so, a few days later, with the forecast for a bright and sunny Saturday, I packed a bag before we went to bed whilst C rummaged in the shed amongst the camping gear. We set the alarms for 5 in the morning, and when they went blooping off we ~~leaped~~ fell heavily out of bed yawning and set to work waking the children.
They didn’t know what we were doing and were decidedly mean-spirited at the whole getting-up-in-the-dark-and-the-cold thing. But by the time we had them in the car with rugs around them, the adventurous spirit was fired up and we were all awake and chatting quietly.

The mood MAY have dipped a little when we got halfway to destination and found I’d forgotten an essential item*, so had to turn round and go back, and the 2nd trip out was a little more tense owing to us being hurtled along the country lanes in an effort to make it in time.

Which we did.

And we pulled in to the top of WinGreen Hill at 6.35 a.m. – a full 15 minutes before official sunrise.

The sky was already silver-blue, so we bundled everyone out of the car and walked them over the top of the hill to the Eastern side so that we could stand and watch the sun rise from our favourite spot on earth.

And it was magical.

Totally, utterly freezing, mind.

But quietly, wonderfully beautiful.

Thankfully the man had his camera, so I can show you exactly what we saw… (and yes, I need a new blog template – I want *big* images, and these overlapping ones are looking ugleeeee at the moment)