Hollow Eclipse

How low-tech can you go?

 

The solar eclipse came to the hollow between 2 and 3 pm Monday, August 21st in lovely sunny skies with just a few poofs of cumulus clouds. We weren’t in the zone of totality, but I did see a good chunk eaten out of the sun at the peak and the air took on a cool ethereal quality. I was surprised how well the white paper at the bottom of the pinhole viewer reflects the sky and clouds as well as the sun. NASA’s DIY video was great! And I enjoy looking at the sun with it even without an eclipse. It’s fun to catch that little ray inside a box.

Eclipse Sky

It was good to have an otherworldly experience after the horror and terror of the weekend of August 12 in Charlottesville where neo-Naziis and white supremacists rioted and killed Heather Heyer, a local citizen who worked as a paralegal and was protesting against racism and religious bigotry. People were beaten in the streets during uncontrolled mayhem. Armed thugs roamed Market Street in front of the library. The Police stood down. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it and I just watched it on tv.

The wings of violence and death are brushing up against us and I feel their feathers on my face. I take comfort in the celestial dance, so remote, so beautiful, so removed from human folly. I often study the night sky and take out my National Audubon Field Guide to the Night Sky when I need to escape worries here on Earth. I recommend it. We’re lucky to have a good night sky here in the hollow even if it is like looking up into an oculus.

Back here on the ground Tom Torrance’s castor beans are creating a pink glow in the garden and combining well with the tall sunflowers sown a few months ago. Love them in the flower arrangement above, but they are messy. Just like life.

High Summer Hollow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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