Evenings in the springtime are especially nice at the rabbit patch. There is a time just after supper and just before the first stars start shining that comes in softly and leaves in   the same way.  

I am calling it “the Edge of Night” which is the name of an old “soap opera” that I remember my grandmother watching when I was a very small child.  She managed to see it on that very busy farm, by ironing or shelling beans at the exact time it came on.  Any task that required one being still would arise consistently at that time of day-it wasn’t her fault that it worked out like that.  I learned early on that it was not the time to ask questions or pretend my dolls could talk.  Of course, soap operas were mostly just on going mysteries and quite harmless in those times. A lot of people did have to go to  the hospital on that show, though we most often didn’t know why.  I thought they were “an unhealthy lot”.  The minute the program was over, Grandma would have just finished her endeavor and would then take to hurrying about something else that she needed to do. How I would love to see some of the old episodes today!

“The edge of night”  at the rabbit patch is an entirely different thing. There is a whole different life for me when I get home from work.  Cash and Christopher Robin wake from  their deep slumbers like it’s Christmas morning and frolic for a few minutes upon my arrival.   It endears them to me even more.  From the moment I enter the back door to the kitchen until “after suppertime”, passes quickly.  I don’t know what time the clocks say it is-but I know what time my boys will be hungry and that’s when we have supper. Not long after the”kitchen is put back”  the light  starts to make very slanted shadows and then the air gets cool. The early night air reveals what is blooming  and I breathe it in- deeply and happily.  All seasons have distinctive  smells but I think the scent of spring may be the most enchanting.

Out of habit, I look for the first star-and I make a wish when I find it. Rabbits may do the same as they show up about this time.  Already the night sky has the look of spring.  The constellations do not stand out so boldly now-they have company-and a lot of it. 

It does not take long for all of this to happen and many times I rely on Cash to find the safest route back to the back door as I stayed too long and didn’t notice the descending darkness. When I lived “in town” I missed not being able to see the skys’ works-sunrises, sunsets. rising moons and starlight.  I would sometimes take a drive just to show my  children the wonders I grew up on.  Today my  children are older and live in nice neighborhoods-mostly in “city limits”  and I may soon do the same as well. . . but ever so often, I get a call from one of them at the edge of night time, and they say “Mom, have you seen the moon tonight?” -and I like that.