Summer Night Horizon
Decided to stick on-road this evening. Yesterday was, after all, just supposed to be a little light warmup for today! Feeling a bit fragile after yesterday's misadventures, and between that and the usual general procrastination, didn't get started as early as I'd hoped. Was feeling pretty decent through Curraheen and then Killumney, so carried on to Aherla, as seems to have become semi-traditional. (Fourth time since last cycling update, I think. I seem to be a tad behind...) By the time I got there it was pretty darn dark, and decidedly chilly. Shoulder was rather stiff, so might not have gone on any further even if I'd got an earlier start.
Great seeing overhead, though, as has also been the case on quite a few evenings recently. Stopped off on the road between Aherla and Farran to peer upwards somewhat longer. Sufficiently dark that when cars (and indeed tractors) went past it was painful on the ol' retinol. Milky Way was fairly clear, which is pretty rare between my dodgy eyesight, the dodgy weather, and the general light pollution, but it's been "out" a few times lately. Have worked my way up to actually being able to identify a few more stars and constellations by eye. Thought I saw a couple of very faint meteors, but it was hard to be sure; then, a distinctly bright one, right in front of me, coming from Pegasus or thereabouts.
By the time I reached "base camp" on the main road, didn't really feel like lingering further to have the statutory banana and chilled drink. Something mulled might have been more welcome, really. Had a couple of quick swigs and motored on back. Perhaps all the faffing around earlier'd given me some recovery, but seemed to be in reasonably decent shape by the time I got back.
Title of post swiped from an Anathema track I was particularly enjoying on my MP3 player (Shoe Prog? Neo-gaze?). Rather than any actual delusion about the current season, before any local May-July zealots or anyone else gets on my case. Though if you were retro-defining "summer" as the 13 weeks of nicest weather this year, as well as one of them being in March, a couple have been in September, at least here. We seem to have got quite lucky a few days recently when the weather over most of the island's been quite crapulent, if the weatherdroids are to be believed. As they're generally not.
Great seeing overhead, though, as has also been the case on quite a few evenings recently. Stopped off on the road between Aherla and Farran to peer upwards somewhat longer. Sufficiently dark that when cars (and indeed tractors) went past it was painful on the ol' retinol. Milky Way was fairly clear, which is pretty rare between my dodgy eyesight, the dodgy weather, and the general light pollution, but it's been "out" a few times lately. Have worked my way up to actually being able to identify a few more stars and constellations by eye. Thought I saw a couple of very faint meteors, but it was hard to be sure; then, a distinctly bright one, right in front of me, coming from Pegasus or thereabouts.
By the time I reached "base camp" on the main road, didn't really feel like lingering further to have the statutory banana and chilled drink. Something mulled might have been more welcome, really. Had a couple of quick swigs and motored on back. Perhaps all the faffing around earlier'd given me some recovery, but seemed to be in reasonably decent shape by the time I got back.
Title of post swiped from an Anathema track I was particularly enjoying on my MP3 player (Shoe Prog? Neo-gaze?). Rather than any actual delusion about the current season, before any local May-July zealots or anyone else gets on my case. Though if you were retro-defining "summer" as the 13 weeks of nicest weather this year, as well as one of them being in March, a couple have been in September, at least here. We seem to have got quite lucky a few days recently when the weather over most of the island's been quite crapulent, if the weatherdroids are to be believed. As they're generally not.