Northern lights

I had fallen asleep on the settee when TSM woke me up at a quarter to eleven to say that she had been reading on the BBC about people being out and about across the country looking at the Northern Lights. I blearily agreed to drive fifteen minutes up to Chobham Common with her to get a look with a bit less light pollution.  She was sober but I had had a couple of glasses of red wine so the adventure had the added benefit of a mildly alcoholic haze from my perspective. This was made even more surreal by The Dizzle calling us within a minute of us leaving home. His Find My app had alerted him to the fact that we had hit the road and he and Ms R had guessed what we were up to as they were also out trying to get a glimpse of the phenomenon. We duly met in the Steep Hill Lane car park where there were already a few other cars, which was a good spot unencumbered by trees but accompanied by the roar of traffic from the M3 in a deep ravine below. 

This selection of pictures includes ones taken by us in Surrey, some from one of my many brothers in Snowdonia, and even a couple from the Girl Racer over on British Columbia in Canada. One of those things that brings people together across the world...

I had been watching the skies for several minutes before I realised that The Dizzle and Ms R had bought Henry the cat with them. Henry has a cat basket with safety straps and a hole where he pops his head out. Makes him look like a feline tank commander.  He is a much travelled moggy who gets taken on walks and to pubs but this was his first encounter with the aurora borealis. 

It was pretty spectacular and I’m glad we went. I played that bit of music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind on my iPhone to add to the mood but got told to turn it off. So I got out my Night Sky app and checked out the stars, which were very visible. 

Earlier in the day I had spent several hours making the pub at the bottom of the garden bigger by clearing out the back and pushing the internal wall back. It now looks fab and I treated TSM to a French cafe welcome home, with a table for two and music from Midnight in Paris (see extra). 

I also had the great pleasure of an early morning visit from Ms R and a late afternoon visit from The Yoga Mama, both of whom sat in the garden with me for an hour in the sunshine.

All rather fab. Excellent day in fact.