Last night, the Perseid's drew us out into the gentle caress of a mid summer’s eventide.
Nine something and the daylight having mostly subsided, Lucas and I headed out driving on lookout for a dark and quiet place to see if we might catch a shooting star or two. We drove along the southern shoreline of our little fair Isle until we hit a side road we thought might work.
We should have re- read local fab astronomer Glenn Robert’s tips on how to best capture the August magic that is the Perseid meteor shower but we did our best at recollecting.
Since the moon was close to full and quite high in the mid evening sky, Glenn suggested putting something large, like a tall tree, between the viewer and their skyscape, in order to best their chances at seeing the little bits of shimmering ancientness as they made their way into view, for but a trailing, brilliant moment.
The Waterside Rd., a lovely quiet place save for a bull’s roar (at who knows what) and a place filled with lots of personal memories of a homestead there once occupied by dear relatives of mine, proved a good stopping place.
An abandoned yard and house now fallen into overgrowth and cellarways had a stand of trees tall enough to find a perfect one to block the moon from our view.
“Ahead a bit, a bit more—there, you’ve got it mom...” was Lucas’ quiet telling that we’d found the place.
That and strangely:
“Do you smell pineapple?” when we first pulled off the road and put down the windows.
Yes, the smell was unmistakably the lush sweetness of pineapple filling the air around us. The roadsides full of quite possibly my favourite summer wild plant—Pineapple weed! (But how could I EVER choose a favourite wildfower?!?) Our car tires must have crushed an abundance of it to have such aroma overtake us.
Windows lowered, and necks stretched out and back to take in the panorama of sky, we remained car bound due to taking leave in a hurry and not dressing for the inevitable onslaught of mosquitoes.
Satellites, airplanes, and a few meteors graced our field of vision in the time we sat roadside.
While we sat we listened to the hum of cricket song-- as August as the golds and magentas of fireweed, loosetrife and goldenrod-- and to August night what the cicada is to August day. Harbingers of plenty and beauty they all are.
And speaking of plenty, the mosquitoes proved to be aplenty too—quiet at first and then filling our car with an unwelcome zinging.
As we pulled away to head back for the main road towards home, we turned our brights on and could see several sizable frogs on the roadway ahead of us as well as a wonderful myriad moths of all sizes and descrips---these and the Perseids--welcome sights all!
Happy mid-August!
Jill
There was magic in the air even if meteors were missing!