And the frogs begin to call

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I am sleeping in a small apartment - bedroom and bathroom - attached to a storage shed; a corrugated iron roof, held up by exposed wooden beams and concrete floor covered with a bright rug. The bed faces two large windows looking out into the garden, an expanse of different shades of green. During the night, insects and frogs call outside, to be replaced by birds in the early hours of the morning. Last night, I was awakened by a clatter as something moved through the shed, and imagined a snake, knocking something off a bench in the dark.

My apartment is midway between the two houses on the property, one in which my mother and her partner live, the other belonging to my father. I wander between the two during the day, trying to evenly divide my time between both parents. It is the first Christmas I have spent with them both since their divorce, and the atmosphere is pleasantly amicable. I was feeling a little awkward about the situation prior to my arrival, so I am pleased that it is so easy to manage, both emotionally and the practicalities of sharing my holiday with both parents.

The heat has stayed at reasonably pleasant temperatures for this time of year, although it is fairly humid, as is usual, and as soon as I do anything physical sweat begins to pour down my face in excessive quantities. I have been enjoying the taste of the water, clean and fresh. I have become used to the taste of city water now, although it took me some time, but when I spend some time up here it is always a little difficult to go back to the rather chemically treated flavour of the water that comes from our taps at home.

I’ve been snapping lots of pictures, experimenting with the different modes on my camera, and am very pleased with the results. While it’s going to take me a long time to get to know my camera in the sense of knowing what settings are best to use when (and understanding all the little numbers that pop up, trying to tell me important things while I shrug at them and tell them that I’ll get around to reading the instruction manual soon), the auto settings are tremendously easy to use and almost always take wonderful photos.

It has just started to rain, after an overcast morning. I am off to see how my camera copes with this shadowy yellow light.

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Filed under christmas, daintree, family, holidays