24 hours later...
Having been up for 24 hours straight yesterday I managed a fairly good nights sleep.. well by good I mean I only waking up a few times in the night and being totally wide away a 3:30 am. After recording twenty minutes of the early morning soundscape perched in the corner of the window I decided to just get up at about 5:45 in the end. It’s not such an unreasonable time, if it is good enough for the sun then it is good enough for me (and also the rooster… apparently).
I am currently sitting on the ‘Pirate ship’ porch in the bright morning sunshine of Reno listening to the cacophony of garden sprinklers rain down the only source of water these lush landscaped garden paradises of Slide Mountain will likely see, at least for the coming months anyway. There are also the other exotic and unfamiliar curious cackles and warbles of the various creatures I am yet to identify mixed in with a few comforting sounds of the familiar, gentle dove cooing, the rummaging of busy chickens looking for their first morning feed and the occasional croaking frog. From this vantage point I also get the view of the occasional airplane taking off and landing so the sounds of the racing engines echoes right the way through the basin.
Beyond the tidy picket fenced meadows with Llamas and neighing horses and pristine wooden barns with the hens enjoying the morning activity and the ducks in the ponds with the dog barking. After the trees and the fields that roll gently down hill you have the distant rumble of Reno and the twinkle of the glass buildings that glimmer in the early morning sunshine. Casinos and shopping malls, galleries, superstores and every kind of ‘drive-thru’ you can imagine. Beyond this the landscape becomes wild again, the small hills undulate into bigger hills which over lap onto larger hills which become the rugged mountains of the Sierras.
This seems the most enjoyable way to ease yourself into six weeks in the desert, aside from the heat of the sun that scorches even at 6am this feels lush and green and not much like a desert at all… Yet…