Listening under the portico

By Sally Sontheimer

Last summer, I did a writing exercise with the children who were at the house for judo camp. We sat in chairs under the portico, pens and notebooks in our laps. I asked them to just listen and note down everything that they heard. This is what we came up with:

Bells ringing across the hill
Wind
Magpie squawking
Other bird tweeting
Wind
Magpie
Lucio’s voice inside the house
Twitter of birds
Magpie squawking
Moment of silence
Magpie
Car starting
Car moving
Wheels on gravel
Birds again
Car horn on curve of road
Magpie squawking
Cricket
Birds
Magpie squawking
Bee buzzing
Magpie
Bee buzzing
Wind moving leaves of wisteria
Birds
Justin moving in his chair
Chair scraping over floor
Bee buzzing
Bee buzzing

:: Listening under the portico :: The kitchen angels :: ‘I only eat pigs I know’ :: My beloved mountain ::