hazy skies, 
blackberries,
dancing feet and
a sun burnt nose
from the day we climbed the mountain
and I was kissed by the fires above.
.
mother moon and father sun
aligning.

~ the morning before the eclipse I saw the crescent moon setting
haloed in the dawning light of day.

There are no words that could describe the sight of a total solar eclipse. It is one of the strangest and most beautiful events I have ever witnessed. My dad asked me to describe the event in an email, and although I tried to pour out my feelings into words, I found myself wishing I could gather my loved ones to share this with them, so they could see and feel and know it for themselves.

Here, again, I will try and use words to describe what happened...

An hour before the total eclipse, the sky began to dim, like the exposure of a photograph being slowly lowered. The colours were tinted with grey and black, the hills became silhouetted against a deep blue sky...

Then the birds began to flock from tree to tree, singing loudly as they do at dusk.

From our seat in the mountain's sides, I could hear the river still running far below, and could see the sunlight sparkling across the lake. The sun was still bright, blinding to look at. Then, I understood what the newspapers had been saying about the dangers of looking at a partial eclipse. The sun's rays stayed diamond bright until the very moments before totality...

I could hear crickets in the long grass, and crows calling from the pine forests. The edges of the horizon flared with pink, and yet the sun was nowhere near them. A single star began to shine out in the sky, and the whole picture dimmed very quickly, till I could hardly see my boots in front of me. It grew very cold...

Then, all the world seemed to stop. Silence.

Every single soul in the mountains looked up, bound together in that moment as one...

all in awe.