Talking point

I expect across the world, or at least across the UK, the talking point is the solar eclipse. We went down to the beach with most of the village – well, those who weren’t on top of the hill who included our son, to watch the great event. It was extraordinary, we watched safely through special glasses as Luna crept across Sol, and the light dimmed and the atmosphere chilled. The beach was packed, mostly with cars – although a lot were turned round and sent to find parking elsewhere. Because of the cars there wasn’t a great crowd altogether, but there was still many people and an excited atmosphere. After the event was over we turned to walk home, meeting up with some neighbours so we caught up with their news, and gave them ours. The last time there had been an eclipse here in Uphill in 1999, we had all been up on the hill, and these friends and others from the gang who used to socialise in the Dolphin, had dressed up in bed-sheets and become the Fluid Druids who greeted the event with cheers, shouted random nonsense, waved their arms in salute, and once the moon had passed, cheered once more, then stumbled down the hill back to the Dolphin to celebrate. I do have photos somewhere

It really is great when some harmless natural event occurs which brings everyone out of their homes to observe/enjoy/marvel/celebrate, with nothing to fall out or disagree about, nothing to cause an upset. There’s nothing which can go wrong because someone forgot to do something or order something or arrange something, and nobody can get cross because they should have been in charge of something, or shouldn’t have/should have been given a particular task to do, or there wen’t enough of something, or a ridiculous over-order of something, or someone’s wife/husband/partner/parent/child/sibling had been left out, or put upon to do some onerous task. Or maybe someone had an eclipse party and the weather didn’t co-operate so it was foggy or rainy, or there were too many or too few guests, or someone said/did something inappropriate when the world was plunged into shadow!

I think it’s more than probable that I will miss the next one in 2090 although there is a partial eclipse in 2030, and an even better partial eclipse in 2036. Watch this space!!!