Here in The Shire, it was a middle of the night experience, and I couldn't sleep a wink. I was so worried I'd drift off into the Land of Nod and miss the whole thing, because, for once in a very long time it looked as if we would not be scuppered by the omnipresent cloud cover that spoils so many cosmic events for we folk in the west.
The warm and friendly closing bars of music from Downton Abbey faded {is this really the final series?} but there were still four hours to go before this lunar spectacular commenced. Panic ye not! I set my alarm for 2:00 a.m. but I was so excited that it just kept me going ~~~ I need not have worried.
At 2:00 a.m. the alarm was duly switched off and I put on warm clothing, grabbed my camera and settled myself outside in the cold air of an early Autumn night. Everything was so incredibly bright, almost as daylight, with long shards of silver light becoming the darkest shadows beyond objects that no longer held the familiarity of daylight ~~~
There was hardly a star in the sky! Suddenly, a barely discernible change crept across the garden, and the first nibble went from our silver hare and Man in the Moon ~~~ it was happening right here, right now ~~~
Slowly, the moon began to disappear, little by little, and as she did so the stars came out in the crisply clear sky until it was so full of millions upon millions of stars, the like of which I cannot recall seeing before. With a great whoop of joy I could see the Milky Way, a gentle, pale, lighter slash across the dark night sky.
Shooting stars whizzed quickly by, just adding to the magic, as the moon disappeared even more ~~~ eventually turning the eagerly anticipated blood red that is a rare phenomenon indeed ~~~
I felt so peacefully alone, so connected to this wonderful, truly awesome, universe in which I live my small and insignificant life ~~~ it was just me, the moon, and the stars ~~~I could not resist myself and kicked off my shoes and danced across the dew soaked grass of the lawn ~~~ it just seemed so much the right thing to do!
I stood for over two hours through the night to watch this unfold before my eyes. The moon remained blood red for much longer than I expected and sometime after 4:00 a.m. the first signs of the eclipse ending began. Sometime later, I came back inside, tired and incredibly happy I crawled into my bed to relive the experience in my dreams ~~~
Until next time
Sincerely yours
Deborah
