Eclipse Memories

Hello Lovelies,

if you are in the U.K. or probably other parts of Europe too, you will know we had a partial eclipse of the sun yesterday.

It's the first solar eclipse my boys have experienced and they wanted to know what it would be like. 

Back in 1999 I had witnessed and recorded a very similar eclipse and I knew there were photos I could show them, somewhere in one of  my MANY photo albums from the days of film.

Eventually I located the right one. Here it is.........

I must have been really taken with this phenomenon as there were no fewer than 8 photos slipped into the cellophane pockets, with little hand written notes on slips of paper between them...........

that was quiet a lot in the days when you had to consider film and developing costs..

This one made me smile. It says " Henry using the recommended viewing method - A mirror in an envelope with a small hole. Direct at white paper.".........

Ah Henry my lovely big Tabby and white cat....he was such a beautiful boy...and a real character who charmed everybody he met.............



Here's the image of that solstice he was viewing ....using the recommended method :0)

This is a pretty rubbish photo of a photo, but you get the idea.

I have to smile at the messy background to this photo too......staging / cropping...what's that?

 still, blogging hadn't even been invented then had it 

Here are some more pictures . My observations were " Temperature drops by 10 degrees C. Cats club together- unusual!"

We had two cats in those days.....Henry and George, my " babies" . They were not related and  never really liked each other. So this sight was quiet unusual, especially outdoors.......... 

I can remember on the day how eerily quiet it went when the eclipse was at it's fullest. All the birds stopped singing. I was hoping it would get really dark, but on a cloudless summers day, and only 90 percent of totality, that wasn't the case.

My notes say " Light level drops and it's very quiet. Definite shadows but not bright - cold light"........

Looking at this photo now, I'm not studying the effect of the eclipse, but recalling a time when this space was a real passion of mine...another "baby" if you like........

That day in August 99  I was 33 years old and I had no children.

I didn't know if I ever would ever have any real babies to love.

But by the end of the year I was pregnant with, not one but two babies....and the following summer my garden looked like this........ Caption here " one days washing!"

It was so nice to see these pictures again. To show my boys the eclipse before they were born. To smile at pets fondly remembered. To feel truly blessed at how my life has turned out so far. 

Yesterday I was at work and didn't see the eclipse at all, but I was very happy my boys were able to go outside at school, to stand around in the playground with their mates and peer at pinhole images of the crescent sun. It's something they will probably remember for a long time....even though they didn't seen greatly impressed with the whole thing!

Jacquie x

p.s. Louise has posted some stunning  photos of yesterday's eclipse HERE do take a look.