Postcards From Across the Pond

12:37PM:

I’m in the beer garden of a traditional English pub; traditional, but with a tang of Jamaica about it. I may be drinking a pint of Harvey’s Best, but I’m waiting on a Cajun Chickenburger, surrounded by Jamaican flags and listening to Reggae music. The guy who runs the pub—and does the cooking—did not emigrate from Gothenburg. But he’s a fellow expat, and with better cookery skills.

I’m spending this hot afternoon waiting for my wife, which has given me a chance to become acquainted with a pint of Harvey’s while getting some work done and enjoying the fine weather.

We are, they tell us, currently heading into our fifth heat wave of the season (but who’s counting?) and although I am enjoying the summer-like weather (New York summer, I’m calling it) a bit of rain would not go amiss. The grass, the birds, and the men and women struggling to put out all the wildfires, would appreciate it.

I doubt that’s going to happen any time soon, however. They’ve been ballyhooing an eclipse of the sun for weeks and if that didn’t assure at least a day of clouds and rain, I don’t know what would have. But that day is upon us and it’s sunny and clear, as it has been for the past two months. And tomorrow we’ll get the same, just like the day after that, and the day after that. My weather app predicts the next ten days, and it might as well be a copy-and-paste job.

But it’s cool under this shelter and I’m the only one here (it’s sorta early) and I’ve got all afternoon. Once I collect my wife, we’ll go home and wait for the eclipse.

Having seen a few eclipses in my time, I was not overly excited by this one, but it’s likely to be the last good one I’ll get to see so maybe I should at least have a go at making one of those pin-hole thingys so I don’t go blind trying to get a glimpse of it.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Later:

I found two pieces of cardboard and poked a hole in one of them. Now all I need is some sun. It may not be cloudy, but it’s late in the day and my flat is surrounded by trees. I’ll need to go into the access road; it looks sunny there ….

Believe it or not, it worked. And I even managed to hold up both pieces of cardboard and get a photo at the same time. I’m not sure how.

As time goes on, it’s getting darker. About 90% of the sun is covered so, even though it’s not total, it’s a good one. I took a photo earlier to show what full sunlight looks like so I can compare it to what it looks like now. I know it’s a different time of day, but sunlight is sunlight and, trust me, it is dark, not like twilight, more in an eerie, eclipsey sort of way.

Later Still:

The eclipse is over and I was going to take a photo of what the light looks like now, but it’s about eight-thirty in the evening so it’s getting dark. How am I supposed to make a decent comparison? What a stupid time of day to have an eclipse. Who was responsible for scheduling that?

It’s cooler now, practically normal. Tomorrow, 95 degrees. Can’t wait.