Sounds of silence!

October 23rd, 2008

It’s Friday. Yeah! No meetings today. No rush this morning so I take time to read the paper before setting out for my morning walk quite a bit later than usual. My wonderful companion Sharna is still sporting her shaved torso after underging scans etc earlier in the week, but she is always keen to sniff and smell and see what has changed along the pathway since yesterday morning. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. Hardly a cloud in the sky and no wind. A perfect Hervey Bay morning.

As we walk through the vine forest to the beach I notice the tide is retreating and the sand is still coated in a layer of green. A usual occurrence at this time of year. The shoreline is dotted with birds. Two pure white  egrets (I think..) poke their beaks into the muddy sand for breakfast as do our small group of pied oystercatchers which have been visiting these last few weeks. Their bright red beaks and feet and black and white plumage make them easy to spot. Seagulls and sandpipers complete the picture along the waters edge but looking inland, along the edge of the forest, I spot ‘Ozzie1’ or ‘Ozzie2’ (yes we have two Ospreys but I can’t tell them apart) resting in his favourite dead tree. High up he sits surveying his terrain. Rainbow bee eaters dart between the shoreline Casuarinas and butterflys flit this way and that.

Looking down I notice many Ladybirds on the sand. More and more of them are here so I’m careful where I place my feet. These little red and black insects are here in their thousands it seems. I wonder what draws them to the beach as I have not noticed them before. They fly away when I approach or sit and reorganise their wings folding and unflolding them. I hope that they find what they are looking for.

I can’t help but feel uplifted. The last few weeks have been tough ones so it is with a renewed sense of pleasure in the simple natural beauty of life that lifts my spirits. I enjoy the peaceful sounds of nature and the sheer beauty of this small patch of preserved vine forest and beautiful beach. Once again I rejoice at the simple pleasure of being so very lucky to live here and to be able to walk along such a lovely stretch of coastline whenever I please.

Just before I reach my pathway home I hear a drone. The sound is a plane approaching. I stop and look to the sky expecting one of our frequent light planes to be travelling past but no, I can’t see anything. The noise increases and as I look further afield I watch as a large jet approaches. The bright orange Jetstar logo and silver fuselage glint in the morning sunshine. I wonder how many people are visiting us for the first time or returning to the city that they call home. I think about the many plane trips I seem to make these days and how easy it is to travel to places far away. The contrast between my silent, peaceful natural surrounds and the noisy but magnificent silver aeroplane is stark. I admire how clever mankind is. That we can build such beautiful machines to fly through the skies and take us to every far corner of this, our planet Earth, is a reflection of the cleverness of human achievement.

I return home wondering how we can maintain the right balance. How can we preserve and protect everything that is good and wonderful and beautifully natural upon our planet while at the same time digging the earth and damming our rivers to supply the food, water and minerals that we use to survive and proliferate? How many people is the right amount of people that this planet can support and how do we decide? How many noisy planes can fly over my otherwise serene neighbourhood before I feel annoyed and invaded by ‘progress’? The big questions and the little questions. I return home thankful that I live here. Our Fraser Coast is truly a place to be treasured.

One Response to “Sounds of silence!”

  1. Judith & Alan Genschon 07 Mar 2012 at 4:08 pm

    Great blog. We do indeed live in a wonderful part of Australia.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply