break daylight verb phrase [with stress on both day and light] To dawn, become light in the early morning.
1937 Hall Coll (Smokemont NC) [By the] time we got the tree cut down, it was day, just breaking daylight. 1939 Hall Coll (Proctor NC) We just stood there till it went to breaking daylight and got to snowing. Ibid. (Indian Creek NC) When it begin to break daylight till she could see to walk, she took her two little kids and went on in home.
—Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
Matt’s favorite time of day is when it’s just starting to break daylight. He says it’s a still quiet time that he relishes and needs. His love for that time of day likely came from all the years of deer hunting. Although I’ve heard him wax poetic about seeing the day come alive before the distraction and noise of daily life I don’t enjoy it as much.
I’m an early riser but it takes me a while to come fully awake and be ready to face the day. But I am thrilled that Matt enjoys his early mornings.
It means he starts the fire in the winter, lets the chickens out and feeds them year round, and on our recent beach trip it gave him time to set up our umbrellas and chairs. All I had to do was walk to my chair book in hand and sit.
Last night’s video: Best Vacation Ever!
Tipper
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I love the break of daylight too…although I am not up early all the time like I used to be. When I was first married and didn’t have a dryer, I would be hanging out clothes on the line at the break of day. I could barely see what I was doing. I would pack my hubby a lunch, do my laundry, exercise, and then go back to sleep for a bit. Hubby would leave for work in the mines at 4:30 am. Later on, after having children, I always enjoyed getting up before everyone, having coffee, and relaxing before the rush of day began. I still love to go out on the porch first thing…with my coffee…say good morning to God, and admire the world around me. When hubby gets up first, he has the coffee on and ready for me…So sweet!
Tipper, Ryan Hall Y’All just predicted that the El Niño this winter should make it much more likely that you may get a big snow!
I hope he’s right 🙂
Y’all had such a special time. Pictures were beautiful. Breaking day is a quiet, reflective time of day. I would be up at 4:00AM to go in to start my shift at the hospital for years. Now I am not up at that hour any longer. But do experience breaking day as summers in the south require early starts in the garden before the heat of the day becomes too much. As we celebrate all things Appalachia, I’ll mention Dolly Parton. She was a testament to her roots and was such a wonderful humanitarian. God speed this Smoky Mountain sister.
Hi Tipper and Acorns. TY for sharing your time at the beach. I really enjoyed watching y’all. I’m like Matt, I want to be outside and hear/experience the crack, yes there is a noise, of dawn. Some days it is louder than others. The fog denseness can soften the instant. I catch it every time I can. I love y’all. Praising our GOD every day in all things. I feel like King David Dancing in the streets. No matter what is going on I know HIS plan for us all is perfect
Tipper,
I too think that “breaking daylight” is a beautiful term. It carries all the sensory delights that come with that particular time of day. Thoughts of freshness and the gentle waking of daylight noises that gradually become audible as the nighttime noises nod back off to sleep seem almost holy.
Your beach vacation video was so beautiful and enjoyable! Thank you for taking us with you!
I’m with Matt in that I love to greet the dawn. There’s not much better than slowly drinking my cup of coffee and being at peace. I don’t think about what’s to come in the hours ahead, or what transpired the day before. I just give Praise and thanks for life and being enfolded in the Presence of my Father.
Hunters often refer to breaking day as “first shooting light.” That’s when we go on full alert, looking and listening for game on the move.
I enjoyed this post and all the comments very much today. I, too, LOVE to rise early before the world is awake, though I don’t do it every day. It’s such a wonderful and peaceful time. Whenever I do get up before anyone else, and before the sunrise, I always have such a peaceful and productive day! Randy, my husband often talks about how amazing it is to be in the woods when hunting and to see/hear everything come alive. What a special experience!
Beautiful picture!! I come from a family of early risers so following in such footsteps, I also enjoy sunrise morning. I enjoy the peace and quietness in those early hours, the solitude before life’s demands begins. As the day progresses, I begin to ‘wilt.’
I didn’t get to visit the BP&A until late afternoon yesterday because I was cleaning and mopping the basement floor—it’s about 3/4 washed and dried so hopefully I can finish today. I doubt it’s been washed in many years from the dirt that was got up. I’m delighted you all went to the beach and I laughed several times thinking of Paw paw telling Ira that Atlantic Ocean is actually an old timer’s big pond. As a kid, I’d believe it. Lol I’m up at 6 or so to get animals fed and let chicken out. After washing a few dishes and emptying cat boxes, I go back to bed til 9:30. It’s become my new habit and I must need it cause sometimes I sleep and sometimes I just lay and rest. The last time I went to the beach, I got a hassle for having glass bottles. I got rid of them right away, “master!” Who knew it was a such a disaster? It did me right up as most things eventually get around to doing. Anyway, I won’t be traveling too far any time soon cause the fuzz has to be up the wazzoo on everywhere and everything. To me, I’ll sit right here and hot tub it when I can. God bless you all and have a great day.
I’m going to leave a tip here, did you know that if you leave a comment, that somebody can respond to it, to see it you have to come back here, I did not know that for a long time, God bless you and have a great day,
When I need to wake up that early, I can, but if left to my own devices (no errands/chores needing to be done in the AM), I’m liable to wake up who knows when. This is one of the perks of living to a ripe old age. Of course, there’s also the giving of thanks that I just wake up in the morning/noon to begin with, like that old saying about how any day you’re still this side of the dirt, you’re doing OK, so make something of the day.
Your post reminds me of “…cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark,” She was the first to see him alive, so early in the morning she could not see him well enough to realize he was not the gardener. Was it by his design that she should see him first of all? He did make a point of giving individual messages to various ones; Mary Magdalene, Peter, Thomas. They each were confirmed in the knowledge that hope had come for a fallen world and including all it is also very personal. Ranging far afield I guess, but reckon there are people who cannot be alone and have peace?
I was awake at daylight, six mornings a week, for more than 25 years. On Saturday I would go home and spend the day with my wife and kids and everybody else’s kids until way up into the night. Sometimes it would be early Sunday morning before I made it to bed. I missed daylight on most Sundays.
That kind of schedule messed me for good. Every night about 9:00 PM my body gets to thinking “It’s time to get ready to go to work!” I’m retired but my internal clock is still ticking along in 3rd shift time.
I’m not an early riser anymore but I understand the beauty of daybreak. Loved seeing ya all at the beach. Absolutely beautiful scenes of day breaking over the ocean and sunset. So very happy that you were able to go and spend sometime there. Such good news about B’s results, praying for her, Norman and Papaw Tony. God bless and have a good week.
thank you very much
Oops! It’s 32 years ! ❤️
Happy Anniversary and congrats on 31 years! At least I think that’s right. If not save those wishes until it’s the right day. I loved your wedding pictures and the way that video showed all the stages of your life. It was so special! Blessings
Tipper, you are truly blessed to have a husband like Matt. I know he’s not perfect, because none of us our, but he is definitely the perfect husband for you. I’m glad y’all had a wonderful, relaxing, and fun family vacation. Thankful too that y’all are all safely back home again.
You two complement each other so well and are blessed to have each other.
Matt is a true gentleman; caring, kind, and protector of family.
Tipper=Family
I enjoyed last nights video. It looks like y’all had a wonderful time but it’s always good to get back home.
Relaxing on the beach with a good book is so relaxing! And having access to good seafood is the icing on the cake!
That’s such a pretty way of describing dawn. You don’t hear it said that way much anymore.
I was an early riser (4:45 am) for 27 years, due to my job. There were so many beautiful sunrises as I drove into Asheville. Now that I am retired, I enjoy sleeping late.
My dad always loved to start his day in the very early morning, he loved seeing the sun come up and seeing the world come to life, especially when we would leave for our vacations. Me not so much until the last few years. I appreciate and now, enjoy it more than when I was a kid. Hearing the birds wake up and start to sing their songs is so wonderful. Watching the bees start moving about after spending the night inside a flower is fascinating to me. God has blessed us with a wonderful world!
I’m in 100% agreement with Matt and the others who enjoy the early morning hours. 6 is my usual time to naturally wake up but if 5 stirs me, I don’t bemoan, I greet the day with gratitude and enjoy the peaceful entrance to my day. If, by chance, it’s a day I get to spend uninterrupted at home, I make the most of it from sun up to sun down. If it’s filled with appointments, errands, meals with friends, I soak up the calm & carry it with me till I’m home again and close out my day with a walkabout my little farm with the kittie boys, Opie & Lyle. I head in for my nightly routine, still finding gratitude for the day I spent “living “♡
Why is it that night falls, but day breaks? Ha! I was noticing the light this morning; it is beginning to get that dim, end-of-summer look to it. I’m like you, Tipper, I like early mornings, but it takes awhile for me to get moving.
Normally, I am like that too. My dad was that way, up before the sun and watching it rise. All I want to do right now, though is sleep. My husband has to be up before the sun to milk our cow before he heads to work, so I get up too not long after to filter and bottle the milk. He is not an early riser by nature, but he has adjusted. I wonder what will happen when his schedule changes. Hopefully back to getting up later if it gets us more sleep. I like the phrase breaking daylight. It is clear but also has a poetry to it, like the best Appalachian phrases do.
Thank you for your prayers for baby and me. We have a handful of weeks to go until we meet our baby. Very excited, but so tired that it is hard to keep up with the family during the day. I will keep all of you in my prayers too. ❤️
Praying for you as you are this home stretch before meeting your precious new little one, Meg! Please share the good news of baby’s arrival when you’re up to it and the time comes. 🙂 Such a special time in life!
I have always been a day person, I love to see the sun come up gradually. My favorite times were when my family and I went camping. Daddy and Mama went with us a lot. Daddy would almost always be up first and have a camp fire going and put the coffee on the Coleman stove to boil. We would sit around for a couple of hours talking and watching the sun make its appearance. The children and Mama would finally appear and plans for the day began.
Tricia I have told this before, in the last half of the 1970’s many of us in my wife’s family would go to the Oconee State Park at Mt. Rest, SC and camp. My wife’s Grandaddy would go with us and be up at the break of day cooking country ham he had cured raised from his own hog on his Coleman Stove. He would smell up the entire camping area with this ham. He became friends with the park ranger, the ranger would come by and eat breakfast with him.
Sounds great, Randy. Every time we cooked the aroma of the food would draw people to our campsite. We met many people this way.
I have a big country porch and I love the quietness of the early morning hours, just sitting in my swing having coffee and reading my daily devotions. I love to spend time with the Lord and just looking at all of his beautiful creation. I love to look at all the beautiful colors of my homemade flowers, seeing the birds, butterflies, and bees already at work collecting the nectar from the Flowers. My most favorite time is when there is a soft rain filing. It’s a peaceful time of the day to spend with a Lord in the early morning hours. I am so glad all of you got to go to the beach and enjoy that special time together. Matt is very thoughtful and very caring for his family and setting a wonderful example for those young babies to know how to treat their wife someday and those that they love. God bless everyone.
I am so glad Matt love’s that part of the day! It gives him peace. That’s something every person needs every day the time to reflect on the coming day on their life or whatever is on their mind whether it be a happy moment or a sad moment they have time to reflect on their life. I’m happy as well Tipper to know Matt had that special time as well! Here’s to a beautiful day and a beautiful sunrise! And just like Ann with and E from the book of Anne of Green Gables, it’s a new day with no mistakes in it, funny how I can remember that quote she said so many years ago when I first read the books. ♥️Love, Esme
I love that quote too! ❤️ Ann with an E is a joy even upon rereading.
I am like Matt, I have always liked being up at break of day. I have never cared for deer hunting but liked to squirrel hunt or fish and would often be in the woods or on the lake at break of day. There were no deer in my area during the earlier years of my hunting life. To me it is the most peaceful time of the day. Sitting in the woods and listening to the wildlife come to life or on a lake and watching the sun come up is something everyone should do at least a few times in their life. For the last years of my working life, I would start my job at Michelin between 4:30 -6:30 am. To me if you are smart and have work to do outside during the hot summer months of the south, you will start at break of day but I will not cut my grass that early if it is wet. I wrote yesterday I did not like the beach, my two favorite things to do if I was at the beach was to watch the sun either come up or go down over the ocean, one other thing was to listen o the waves come in after dark. Nowadays I am usually awake at daybreak but because of hurting so bad, but no longer able to do many things I once enjoyed. A bit of advice for the younger members – do anything you enjoy as much as you you can while you still can, the day may come when you are no longer able to do it. Just like now, I am awake but in no hurry to get up, I now just like to lay here in the cool peaceful, quite early morning hours.
Randy, I always liked going squirrel hunting with my husband. I would find a old log and sit while he hunted. So peaceful!
Debbie, for many years I hunted with my Daddy. We would sit down with our backs against a tree. Squirrels was the only thing he hunted. We caught the rabbits we ate during the winter months in a rabbit gum or box. The only gun my Daddy ever owned was a Winchester single shot open sight bolt action 22 cal. rifle. He liked to tell of buying it new after getting out of the Army in 1946 at a hardware store in Ware Shoals, SC. He said he paid $6.50 for it and a cleaning rod. Anything he had in his rifle sights had better say a prayer, he seldom missed. My son now owns this rifle, I tell him don’t blame the rifle when you miss, your Papa didn’t teach it the bad habit of missing! The memories of squirrel hunting with my Daddy is something I will cherish to the day I die.
I love the early morning too. My husband tells me I jump out of the bed ready to go. The sunrise, the quiet, the presence of God, and the world beginning to awaken. Beautiful! Your picture is beautiful! I’m so glad you could go!
Update: I have some wonderful news. B’s results came back and the tumor has shrunk! Her labs looked good. She will go back on the trial treatment. We are praising God for His continued blessings and miracle ahead! Y’all have prayed so hard for B. Her mamaw cannot thank you enough. I will read her your comments from yesterday. We lift your needs to the Lord, too! Norman, thank you for the beautiful prayer and I pray the Lord’s hand carry you and open doors! Kim, I pray you will have a miracle too! Randy and Tricia, I understand that degenerative pain. May God help you each new day and give your body rest from it. We pray for Papaw Tony. May the Lord bless him with strength and returned good health. Cancer is terrible, but I’ve seen God use it for good. How you say? Families restored, priorities put back in order, a new love for life, gratefulness, and come to Jesus meetings. God is so good! He tarries for His children. Please continue to pray for Roxie, she is really sick.
Thank you so much my online family! God bless each of you! Go make it a beautiful day!
Debbie, what wonderful news about B. Praise God for His love and mercy. Thank you for praying for me. My arthritis pain lifted up quite a bit yesterday and I feel it was from all the prayers you and others have showered heaven with. I will also keep Roxie in my prayers.
Debbie I whooped for joy at reading those word two words…tumor shrunk!!!! We’ve go you little B♡ Such a brave girl!!!! Debbie, I had a bit of a setback yesterday. I almost wasn’t allowed to get my chemo treatment as my white blood cell count had dropped to .97 and they require you to be no lower than 1. I sorta begged lol & my NP conferred with my oncologist and because my other numbers were ok and I was hardy looking lol I got the treatment, but…I have to go at 1:30 today & tomorrow to get shots in my belly in hopes of boosting the wbc count. The shots worked 2 months ago so prayers that they work this time as well. Precious Little B, keep hanging in there♡ New strides in cancer research and cures are made every day!!
So thrilled to hear this wonderful news about B’s tumor shrinking! Praising God with you and praying for all. Psalm 100:5 “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
God bless little Roxie