Sunday 8 January 2023
I have become mildly obsessed with moonrise and moonset times as well as sunrise and sunset. Last night, the moon being a waning gibbous at 98.2% (you can tell I have an app for this), it shone brightly through our three bedroom windows, which are on three different sides. At around 06:00, I looked up and thought it must be car lights, it was so bright; I could easily see the way across the bedroom. Until some time in lockdown, I had no real sense of the moon’s patterns and, I’m embarrassed to say, I didn’t really know much about the moon. For example, I did not know that the moon rises in the north-east/east and sets in the north-west/west in the northern hemisphere. I also didn’t know that at full moon, the moon and the sun are opposite, so that as the sun sets, the moon rises, exactly twelve hours and 180 degrees apart.
Yesterday, I collected the micro SD cards from the wildlife cameras. I set off for the upper area of the garden in pouring rain, wearing my new bright yellow oilskin to test it out. Completely and utterly waterproof and seemingly windproof as I didn’t feel cold beneath the coat. I love it, though I can see that they are more for practical purposes than wearing out and about on rainy days. It is kind of heavy and a bit cumbersome and not for vigorous, non-rain activities like going in and out of shops. I am very happy to have it though.
One of the wildlife cameras, for the first time, was triggered once at night. But whatever it was had disappeared by the time the camera started up. Very disappointing. I didn’t go back out to reinstate the SD cards so I feel I’ve missed an opportunity from the bright moonlight of the latter half of last night.
We drove to Selkirk and Galashiels yesterday. The farmers’ market in Selkirk, we found out after we’d walked around trying to find it, is every first Saturday of the month (which it was), except in January because of the likelihood of dreadful weather.
It was good to explore more of Selkirk and Galashiels. When we got home, after a late, cheese-based lunch, I cleared out the painting area, a kind of offshoot room from the living room, in anticipation of a large rug and an Indian bed (charpai) arriving, hopefully next week.
Next week, we should also be receiving the crucial missing barrel nut for the truckle bed so I can complete the bed assembly, the three much-delayed Velux blinds, a hallway mat to replace the cardboard we currently have and a large metal cage locker for the entrance area (vestibule? Or does that sound a bit poncy?).
Today, I’d like to generally potter around ahead of a week of focussing primarily on trying to find an agent. It’s good to write that, it makes it seem a bit more real that I have not only written a novel but the manuscript, version six, is kind of ready to go out.