We’ve just returned from a week in lovely Snowdonia, so I thought, as is traditional, I’d bore you with share a few holiday snaps 😀 Step through the portal into North Wales….

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It’s gone! Left, deserted, bailed, quit, abdicated and, to all intents and purposes, buggered off.

Yes, my inspiration has taken my muse away to languish on some far distant shore and abandoned me to the January Blues with nary even a bottle of wine in which to take solace. My motivation has left in disgust and the doldrums are conspiring with the dust bunnies, sniggering at my despair from beneath the sofa. The box of tricks is empty, the cupboard bare, my creativity has fled, gone, as we say, for a burton.

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As the song says: Another year over, and what have we done?

Well, I don’t know about you, but here is a summary of my year, in pictures 😀

The old and the new

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I’m up and about for the third time this morning, thanks to two alarms and a dog, who woke me up at 2am, rather earlier than the 3am alarm I’d set to get me up for the total Lunar Eclipse this morning. In fact, having barely managed to get back to sleep, I almost failed to get up altogether and did miss the initial phase. I’m very glad that I did though, as it was quite a spectacular sight.

As you may be aware, photography and astronomy are two of my favouritest-est things, (the thumbnail pic is one I took earlier in the year), so the opportunity to snap our nearest cosmic neighbour decked out in festive colour was too good to miss, despite much bleariness of eye and brain.

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I was at the Artemis Gathering at the weekend and on Sunday evening, I took part in a fire walk. Yes, I walked across a fire pit in my bare feet. In…my…bare…feet…across…fire!

I can honestly say it was a once in a lifetime experience, Truly!

Now, I imagine that at this point you are expecting me to relate how amazingly transformational, life-changing and profound an experience it was…but I’m not going to do that. I’m not even going to show you pictures because there was no photography allowed, so I don’t have the proof. Well, actually, I do, but we’ll come to that drectly.

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I went to the New Forest Show yesterday. Naturally, I took a pack-child with me to carry things (well, if you’re going to have children, you may as well put them to good use). So, DD and I set off bright and early, since DH was at work and the killjoy boylet wanted to fester at home. We left Dexter to keep an eye on him, which was just as well because the show was absolutely heaving and he isn’t keen on people in small numbers, let alone in their thousands.

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Well, what a week it’s been! After all the excited anticipation for the eclipse last Friday, not to mention all my faffing about careful preparations to set up my telescope and ensure that I could mount my camera on it for photographing the great event, it turned out cloudier than bath of asses’ milk and a good deal less beautifying.

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© Fred Espenak

This is an astronomically exciting week! Not only do we have a Supermoon sneaking up on us on Thursday (it’s a New Moon, so won’t be visible), but it’s all set to blot out (most of) the Sun on Friday in a partial eclipse as well. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s also the Vernal Equinox, which means that, despite the vagaries of the weather, Spring has sprung. Yay!

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The Death of Rats

I was incredibly saddened to hear of the grim reaping of Terry Pratchett yesterday and in acknowledgement of his work, which has given me great pleasure over the years, I’d like to share with you my 10 favourite things about the Discworld:

1. The Discworld.
The idea that the world is flat, circular and carried on the back of four giant elephants, which are standing on the back of an enormous space turtle is, quite simply, pure genius.

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No, the resolutions to-dos I made in January haven’t fallen by the wayside…yet 😀 Admittedly, I’m a bit late with the monthly progress report though, so here’s a brief update on how I’ve done over the last few weeks 😀

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