My son comes running up….. I think we might have a chick, he says. The kids have been waiting for three weeks for a little fertilised bantam egg to hatch under Bok Bok, one of our red shaver hens who just happens to be broody.

Yes! The children are confirming - they can hear the cheep cheep of new life - new life at the beginning of Winter - extraordinary! I have to say, I get a rise from this - not just the actuality - but the children’s joy - the face of my daughter exclaiming Yes! its actually happened! I’m sure of it.

Ah life, shows up where you least expect it - in this season of death and dying here in the southern island of this globe. I spoke with Harriet our rooster/hen this morning - had a volley of English across to cock-a-doodle and back - I reflected to he/she that they had a fine voice, a fine voice indeed - and they continued to express such language - the complexity of it lost to my human ears - but I’m sure therein a whole world of different intentions in the short and long crows. How marvellous to know and note that every other species is having an experience completely unique of their own - and that theirs impacts mine - the supposed smartest of all moving creatures.

I am moved by this world of wild, lonesome, alive birds, trees, wind and solid rock, block-faulted horst mountains - they girdle me up - hold me true - thrust me back to myself and you. And in this place I will surely be born again.