A Stargazer's View of Dawn

This is Tuesday morning's sky at sunrise, as viewed through the stargazer panel of my tent. I showed you the tent in yesterday's Blip, but somehow I think pictures just don't do it justice: how spacious and light and airy it feels inside the tent, how wonderful it is to be able to look out and still be protected from all of the creepy-crawlies and flying creatures, what a fantastic view it provides of the sky.

Monday night into Tuesday, a strange wind blew in, bringing much warmer temperatures. I awoke in the night to feel the wind when it arrived; I heard it blowing the fallen leaves. With the increase in temperature, I suddenly felt I didn't really need all of the clothes I had on inside my sleeping bag, so I removed my fleece jacket and stuffed it into my make-shift pillow/bag.

The little moon had said hello and good-bye hours before, but the sky was full of stars. And I lay there watching the night sky, thinking about whether there might be somebody else out there, somebody living out in space; maybe even looking back (like me) into the night sky and wondering if anybody was here. I fought the mad impulse to wave and shout, "I'm here! I'm here!"

And as I watched the sky, I saw a shooting star. It flared for a tiny bit of a second, then arced from the top center of my view down to the lower right. And I remembered that line from a song: "There's a warm wind blowing the stars around, and I'd really love to see you tonight." Maybe England Dan and John Ford Coley?

Well, it turns out that I was slightly misremembering the lyrics, as they are actually, "There's a warm wind blowing, the stars are OUT, and I'd really love to see you tonight." But I was close, right?

And then this . . . oh, then this . . . when dawn came, I had a perfect view of the sky from inside my tent, and so I snapped a few pictures of Her Royal Pinkness arriving in her chariot. From my prone position, I could see a bit of the foliage on the trees, lit by the morning light. With such rosy beginnings, I could tell it was going to be a good day . . .

The song: England Dan and John Ford Coley, I'd Really Love to See You Tonight.