Night Lights in Ashland, Oregon December 2009

     Yesterday morning when I ventured forth to check on the chickens and replenish their feed, I was surprised to find that we’d had a number of nighttime visitors.  They had left their calling cards and, though I’m no scatologist, I could positively identify deer and distinguish at least two other types – perhaps possum and raccoon.
     In a way, it reminded me of waking up to a landscape blanketed in snow.  When that happens, I delight in examining the tracks of animals that have wandered through our yard during the night.  I’m not much better at identifying tracks than I am at ID-ing scat, but it’s definitely more fun.  And just as amazing.
     It never fails to surprise me when I come face-to-face with the world that has been busy all the time I’ve been sound asleep.  I think I’m a bit childlike (or perhaps just simple) in that regard.  My nighttime awareness is all about inside with the lights on; it stops at the windows with all that darkness beyond.
     I’m equally amazed at the nightlife that goes on in the “big city” – any big city, but especially New York where day and night seem to morph into one another with non-stop activity.  As an inveterate day person, I am agog.
     Years ago, in Florence (Italy, not Oregon) I remember watching the late night activity on the street below our hotel room.  Each of the corners visible to me was occupied by one or more working girls.  It might have been a slow business night for them, but it definitely was a busy shopping night.  A van drove up and the driver got out, opened the rear door, and proceeded to sell them shoes.  He even had a chair and a full-length mirror for their convenience!  Next came a food vendor and then someone selling small items that I couldn’t quite make out, perhaps jewelry. It was a whole new world to me!
     As an almost totally diurnal being, I feel out of my element at night.  I love our star-scattered Oysterville sky (when it’s clear out) and I love the bright lights of Seattle or San Francisco when I visit. I would probably enjoy revisiting my youth with a night of pub crawling in London or nightclubbing in Paris, and I still love to go out to dinner and the theater almost anywhere.  But, truth to tell, moving around through the darkness makes me uncomfortable, and I am actually a bit intimidated by the night people of the world.  Even the four-footed ones.