The Goddess Eostre, the Spring Equinox and the
Eclipse.
Above
is Ostara ( Eostre) drawn in 1884 by Johannes Gehrts, a popular German illustrator.
In this illustration the goddess flies
through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putto (which were the secular equivalent
to religious cherubs), plus sunbeams, birds, animals and spring plants. From
the earthly realm below, the Germanic people look up at the goddess.
Today,
Friday 20 March 2015, has been a very strange day. I set my alarm to make sure
I was outside in plenty of time. We were told the eclipse would start around 830,
climax at around 9.30 and be over by around 10.30. So there I was up, showered, dressed, out
in the garden, camera in hand and full of anticipation by 8.15. For me, that’s very
organized. I was so disappointed, the sky was full of cloud and the sun was nowhere
to be seen. Anyhow at the time I was more concerned with what lay scattered
over the grass. At first it looked like the
site of a massacre, there were little white feathers everywhere, plus a couple
of what looked like tail feathers. The culprit was nowhere to be seen, I’m
guessing it was a neighbours cat, there seems to be a lot more cats around here
recently. I’ve been feeding the birds in my garden for years and never had a
problem with cats harassing the birds before. I felt terrible guilt for actively
enticing birds into my garden only for them to be ambushed by some savage,
marauding saber toothed, needle clawed feline monster. I was extremely upset.
Then I took another look and on closer inspection, I began to feel a slightly
more optimistic.
There was no sign of blood or half eaten carcasses and the
feathers looked as if they belonged to a young seagull. If that was the case, I
pity the cat because young seagulls are never out of their parents’ sight. The parents sit up high on roof tops and lamp
posts watching their young with hawk like precision. Woe betide anyone or anything that gets too
close or threatens their baby. Mummy and
daddy seagulls are among the most ferocious of animals. If anyone inadvertently gets too close to baby
they start dive bombing and attacking, they aim for your head and they can be
quite vicious. And the noise has to be heard to be believed. I’ve now convinced myself my garden was the
site of a cat learning a valuable lesson rather than place where some innocent
came to a traumatic and bloody end.
Anyway……….back
to the sky and the impending eclips. There was an occasional parting of the
clouds where the sun could be spotted if you were fast enough. It became colder
and the light changed. I had my camera ready and my prescription sunglasses on
but the light from the sun was so bright it was difficult to see exactly what
was going on. But I did see it, not the whole thing because much of the time
the sun was behind cloud but I saw quite a lot. I tried to photograph it as best
I could but it was difficult.
My prescription sunglasses didn’t give nearly
enough protection, the suns rays were concentrated and much stronger than usual
and I spent most of the time squinting up at the sky waiting for the clouds to
part. I did take a few photos but in the end I just pointed the camera roughly
in the right direction and clicked. These are more of a happy accident than
anything else and the colour isn’t at all as it actually looked. The brightness
of the sun, the intensity of the cloud and the strange eerie light was quite
dramatic, there were pink and orange tinges in the cloud, but the camera exaggerated
the effect.
Then
I noticed the long shadows. This far north we get spectacular light effects and
exaggerated long shadows especially late afternoon in the winter months when
the sun sits low in the sky, but this was something different.
These shadows
were stretched, not only very long but also very thin, they were elongated
shadows in muted half light, quite beautiful but unlike anything else. In the
end I wanted to get back indoors, it had become very cold and my eyes hurt
through straining to see the sun.
I
thought I should try to clear away some of the feathers before I went indoors
and it was then that I noticed the frogs, what a noise. Five or six of them
were bobbing around the pond chasing each other, blowing out their little fat
chests and making the funny froggy noise they make.
AND…..
frogspawn!!! Yep sometime during the eclipse, my pond froggies gave me
frogspawn.
And
now I’m exhausted, now all I want to do is sleep.
Happy
Ostara.
Retirement in full swing, eye surgery done and dusted, eyesight improving by the day.
It’s slowly beginning to sink in; I will never ever have to go to work again. It’s an odd feeling. I think I’m basically a lazy person and it would be easy for me to spend my life alternating between the sofa, the TV and the computer. That’s all I’ve done since getting out of hospital, but I’ve forgiven myself for that and classed it as a period of ‘post-op’ recuperation. Anyway the weather has been very odd, far too cold to venture out in so soon after surgery.
Yesterday was the first day of spring; the spring equinox, the pagan celebration of the Anglo Saxon fertility goddess Ostara, one of two days in the year when we get exactly the same amount of daylight as darkness. The time when we traditionally decorate eggs, think of rabbits and hares and delight in spring flowers tied in bouquets with pastel ribbons.
How ever you look at it, at this time of year, we should not be getting snow on the ground and sub zero temperatures along with snowdrops in bloom and the daffodils in bud. But that is exactly what we do have. Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, rather cold but blue skies and sunshine, by the evening the dark clouds and snowfall had returned and this morning we were greeted with a light dusting of snow every where, blue skies, sunshine and biting cold. I think our climate has gone crazy, this is not the way the spring equinox should be. This crazy weather has put my garden behind for months. It’s been too wet or too cold or too ‘both’ to get out and plant any thing, if I don’t get my shallots in soon they won’t have long enough in the ground.
And then I remember I’m retired and as soon as my eye is healed enough I can go out any time there is a break in the weather. My retirement plans are already taking shape. I have a senior coach card, coach tickets from Dundee to Stansted, flights from Stansted to LaRochelle, a couple of nights in a hotel in LaRochelle and a month with my sister in rural France, can’t wait.
I also have a lovely bouquet of roses and freesias from family in Ireland. For the first time in ages I actually have the time to catch up on some reading here. Retirement is only a few days old and I’m loving it already.
