This may well be the busiest spring I can remember, in terms of getting some things done but not others. It's been a couple of months since I last posted anything here on the Farm, in part because I've been healthy enough to be attacking the many garden jobs that I've been AWOL from during the last year (at least), and with all the rain we've had, the half-acre has greened up nicely and is now verging on jungle-hood. Days have been cool enough to enjoy a good deal of time out with the animals, sorting through felled logs, creating barriers between the wild and the tame, and creating new spaces for purposeful planting. I spend a great deal of time weeding, and some of said "weeds" have become pesto, tea, salad components and (ultimately) a good lot of compost.
We had also been awaiting the recent eclipse (like Wordsworth's personification of Science), obtaining the proper glasses, and hoping that for once (just this once) the weather would cooperate and keep the clouds away for a couple of hours on Monday. We got our wish, sort of, and the game of peek-a-boo made the whole experience rather entertaining. Our venue was our back yard, a couple of lawn chairs, and a side table to hold a couple of glasses of wine for celebratory purposes. I had my Merlin app on to catch the (very early) evening chorus of birds as the moon began to obscure the sun, and we were in contact with my daughter in Dallas and my son in Redmond, Washington (where it was cloudy and raining, and they couldn't even enjoy the 30% of the eclipse available to them, because it made little difference in the available light). The area was remarkably quiet, as it can be in the early afternoon before school lets out and rush hour begins, the stillness probably enhanced by the fact that so many were off the highways at appropriate viewing sites.
We found a spot on the back lawn that provided a fairly good view of the sky, which was a bit of a challenge because the trees have nearly leafed out fully and there are only a few small vacant areas in the canopy. Hence the following photos of the event, which (as is so often the case with photos I post on Skywatch Friday) are bordered with leafy edges.
Nearing totality (via The Beloved Spouse using the Canon Eos):
My iPhone images of totality:
And one from my daughter's iPhone in Dallas (no trees!):
And for anyone curious about which birds might have joined the Ecliptical Chorus, here's a screenshot of the Merlin list:
The Wordsworth poem can be found in its entirety at Poetry Nook: The Eclipse of the Sun, 1820
6 comments:
You made quite an occasion of the eclipse. It's good that you enjoyed it.
I cannot understand quite why it captured the media so avidly this time. It is by no means as rare an event as sighting Halley's Comet, although it provides valuable teaching material. Maybe I'm just envious because there was so little chance of us seeing any of it in rain-sodden, windblown Britain.
My grandmother saw Comet Halley twice! But inclement weather and the lack of a decent telescope prevented me from getting much of a view in 1986. (I doubt that I'll be able to last until 2061!) And although total solar eclipses are much more common, seldom do they occur when so many people have a possibility of experiencing them. I think I've only seen one other in my 76 years. The hype may stem from general political/cultural angst, and possibly from greed (lots of cash to be had along the path), but it was rather wondrous!
We got 95% instead of totality but it was lovely.
The air got a chill, the birds sang their hearts out, our security lights came on.
Wow! The eclipse
We were (New York State) 97.6% totality so we traveled about 160 miles to see it in Rochester, New York. It was totally clouded out so I especially enjoyed your pictures. We were in such a crowd that Merlin wouldn't have done us much good. I'm happy the eclipse was visible for both you and your daughter in Dallas. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
Wonderful photos! Photographing a solar eclipse is full of challenges. We are well removed from the path of totality, but I tried taking a photo using my iPhone with the dark filter from some eclipse glasses taped over the lens. Alas, the camera interpreted the scene as underexposed, and bumped up the exposure, leaving my eclipse looking like a fuzzy blob of light.
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