Deb, yes! Dense is exactly the word to use to describe that kind of silence

Connie, I love your last line. It brings that piece together so perfectly. I also love the details of the leaves, the branches, the bed creaking, the dog barking. Wonderful!

I had a similar experience when we moved last year from a fairly busy suburban condo area to the middle of the forest--ironically, next door to my childhood home. Even though it was so familiar, it took ages to adjust. Now, I love it again and am completely comfortable in it, but I remember the first few nights, alone and terrified.

I also adore the word "nightsilence".

I spent twenty years in that room, learning the noises the country night made and thinking of them as home. Only took ten years to undo all that. I'm a city person now.

I miss lightning bugs, though.

I miss lightning bugs, though.

Aww. There aren't enough people who call them lightning bugs. I was young and in Pittsburgh. Haven't seen them since, I don't think.

I was young and in Pittsburgh

I was young and in Greene County, Pennsylvania, 60 miles south of Pittsburgh. Is it that much of a regionalism?

Lightning bugs in NC, too. Anybody who grew up calling them glow worms? I had no idea they and fireflies and lightning bugs were all the same insect.

I'm loving the silence drabbles. Mine won't jell, but it's working itself out.

I call them lightning bugs and fireflies. I don't know why--both names seem to be common in this area.

ooo....they would be a great drabble topic....hint, hint...

Off to have the BEST LOBSTAH EVAH.

I love New England.

We call them peeniewallies.

I miss hearing bobwhites.

Birds with something to say, yeah. Whippoorwills.

Peeniewallies? I disbelieve.

When I was a kid, we had an aviary and had a pair of them. I loved to watch them and listen to the calling. But of course, I didn't have to go to work so the birds getting started early didn't bother me like my parents.