I think that the air outside is still again. The temperature on the dashboard is 4 degrees Celsius. For autumn this is good. Because the sky is full of stars the air will cool even more as we get into the inner valleys. Maybe a frost will have struck the river flats. The car engine starts to work as it climbs over a low pass and crosses into a new watershed.

On the eastern horizon above the silhouette of the mountains the sky has definitely begun to lighten. A dark shape on the road begins to scurry towards safety. It is a brush tailed opossum.

I now associate these early morning starts with the night life of our high country. The burst for cover of a the rabbit, the loping stride of the hare or the defiant stance of a ferret as it rears up tiny, in front of the great mechanical monster. When I was young the night was so full of mystery. Full of strange noises and interesting sights that lay hidden during daylight hours. But now that mystery is strangely gone and has been replaced by a practical knowledge of what goes on under the brush of moonbeams or shafts of starlight that have taken light years to reach us.