It's Been a Busy Week....
I Hope you will Understand, Dear Readers, that the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that rumbled through our region last Friday has been completely Overshadowed by the solar Eclipse of Yesterday! Earthquake...? WHAT Earthquake?? It only shook the ground for about 20 seconds and then was gone. Nothing in my house fell or broke, although it rattled and shook quite alarmingly! The Little People also seemed to have fared well as no-one fell over! But Really....! An Earthquake!! These are not often felt around here! It was centered in New Jersey, about 200 miles from here... but it was felt all the way to Boston and Cape Cod as well as points North. And this just when the Whole World, it seemed, was preparing for the Possibility of seeing a Total or near total Eclipse.... Weather depending, of course! And that weather had just dumped fresh snow all over northern New England... and plenty of rain and sleet and ice in our neighborhood! Take your pick... Nor'easter, Tremblor or Solar Phenomenon... life has been Exciting! So Preparations were in order for the Eclipse, and the Rhododendron Factory temporarily suspended activity in order to produce Safety Glasses for viewing the Eclipse...(weather depending, of course!) You can see above the small run of safety glasses produced....
The work of a few moments, but much appreciated by the Little People!
Will and Gabrielle had decided to invite Arthur and Pollyanna
over for an Eclipse viewing party at The Folly.
The weather was forecast to be mild and mostly sunny at eclipse time...
roughly 3:30 in the afternoon!
Arthur and Pollyanna were delighted to join them...
but Arthur decided to bring his laptop too,
because he was following the excitement as the Moon's Shadow
crossed the continent on its way to New England!
Meanwhile over at The Lovely Old Dollhouse...
Charles didn't want Helen to miss this spectacle...
a Once in a lifetime view!
The New Moon was expected to cover 95% of the sun.
They were set up and waiting quite a bit early,
because Helen doesn't like to be late...
But it was a lovely warm spring afternoon.
What better activity was there than sitting outside in the sunshine?
Victor and Joanna joined them with plenty of time to spare.
"How dark will it get...?" asked Victor.
"It won't get completely dark..." replied Charles
who was interested in these arcane topics...
"But it might start to feel and look as if evening is coming....
or so they say!" he replied.
"Oh look Charles!" said Helen excitedly...
"I think I can see the corner of the sun disappearing...!"
"Is that the Eclipse...?" she added wonderingly.
"That is the beginning, Darling..." said Charles happily.
"You do have very good eyesight, My Dear" he added.
And over at The Folly it was the same story...
"Oh look, Will....!" exclaimed Gabrielle excitedly...
"I can see a bite taken out of the Sun!"
"And I can see it growing as we watch...!" declared Will.
Arthur had decided to leave off the computer
since the Real Show was getting under way.
"How much of the sun will be covered...?" asked Pollyanna.
"They say about 95% in this area..." replied Arthur.
"Maybe we should have tried to go north for the Total Eclipse..." he added.
"Well, we couldn't be sure of the weather...!" said Pollyanna.
"It did snow just the other day!" she added....
"Even though you'd never believe it today!"
"Very True!" said Arthur....
"but Next time....
maybe we should plan to go for Total" he added wistfully.
And as the "bite" out of the sun got bigger and bigger....
The sky dimmed a bit... in an eerie sort of half light...
"Oh, Wow!" Said Arthur.... "Would you look at that now!" he declared.
"I think that's about it!" He added...
"Heavens!" cried Gabrielle....
"That is just Beautiful!" she added in awe.
Well, Dear Readers, my son and I did
drive North to catch the Total Solar Eclipse!
The nearest "Totality" was about 150 miles due north from my home...
an "easy drive" of a couple of hours in good conditions...
one highway all the way.
And the weather forecast was for clear skies...
not that normal for April in these parts....
(and it had just snowed the other day....!)
But Oh my Heavens....
it was a Magnificent Unforgettable sight!
At totality, around 3:30 in the afternoon,
it rather suddenly became dark....
the street lights turned on...!
And you could take off the glasses and look straight at the sun...
now a black disc with a thin silver halo in a dusky blue sky....!
I took one photo with my old camera, no filters...
I was too busy exclaiming "Oh my God" to do anything else!
(We only had about a minute and a half of totality.)
Please forgive the unprofessional quality of the picture....
unedited, unfiltered...
The view to the naked eye was the black disc of the moon
covering the sun entirely with a sliver of halo around it....
But the camera magnifies the halo of light around the sun....
so you can't quite see the black disc...
Keep in mind this picture is staring straight at the sun
in mid afternoon with no filters!
The light in the lower portion is the street light...
And if you look very carefully just above the wires to the right
there is a dot of light...
Venus shining brightly in the afternoon sky!
Just Unbelievable!
Unforgettable!
Un-describeable!
I am still in Awe!!!
Oh, Yes, Dear Readers, between the Nor'easter,
the Earthquake and the Total Solar Eclipse...
It's been a Very Busy week in these parts!
An interesting post and it's funny that even the dolls got glasses. They seem to enjoy the situation.
ReplyDeleteYou saw it too! We were in the path of near totality, and we even got the extra bonus of a huge solar flare at the lower left of the sun disc. I'm glad, however, that we didn't get that earth quake; we get tremors occasionally, but didn't feel anything this time. It was a rather magical eclipse; did you notice sunset 360 degrees all around you during total occlusion?
ReplyDeleteMy, Mother Nature is dropping by in your part of the world! Gosh, an earthquake... what a relief that there were no damages, not even in the small worlds. And snow and a Nor'easter, just thinking of that makes me shiver. However, it's April and April does what it wants (A common proverb in Germany as this rhymes in our language but most of all it's true). But on top of it all a Solar Eclipse! How exciting that you and your son were able to drive a few *ehem* miles closer to the major happening - it's easy to understand that this is an unforgettable experience. And so special that you both could share this extraordinary moment together. Btw - you could already start with the first vignette of this year's You-know-what-card as the eclipse really needs to be on it... and the glasses too.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the glasses - how kind of you to provide the little folks with glasses so they could have their own share of this special moment. It's so lovely to see them sharing this together... and for me everything is well whenever Helen is worried about being too late (but please don't tell her I ever said this *gulp*).
However I had a huge déja vu when I saw our small friends with their glasses... This made some bells ring in some far away parts of my poor memory so I had a look around at your sidebar. And yes, I was able to find it... under the label "Eclipse"... to my surprise published Aug 21st 2017 (hmmmmm... Aug 21st... isn't this somebody's birthday? And strange and also sad - my first birthday without my Dad... eh... where was I...) You've always been very caring about the little ones in your house... ;O)
Hugs
Birgit
You did have quite a time during this week, Betsy! That's a lot of big things in a short amount of time. I have to say that your mini eclipse glasses are the best things I've ever seen, and it totally made my day that all your little dollhouse people got to watch the eclipse! You are wonderful to share such delights in your blog!
ReplyDeleteQue maravilla poder ver el eclipse, toda una experiencia! Y además tus pequeños habitantes también pudieron gozar de él gracias a las pequeñas gafas que les proporcionaste, bravo!!
ReplyDeleteBesos.
Great idea these glasses.
ReplyDelete