Here Comes the Sun

Success!!! We had the most marvelous time viewing the solar eclipse yesterday along with fellow sun worshipers. As it turns out the traffic predictions going to our area were as overblown as winter snowstorm predictions tend to be. At a few intersections there were back-ups, but we were barely delayed on our way to Rickreall, Oregon. Being quite early, the light was lovely as we drove along, and there were lots of barns to see along the way.

In this next image, we passed some fellow sun worshipers getting set up for the coming spectacle.

You can see a motorhome pulled off on the right in the image below.

We were nearly to Rickreall when we noticed this concrete pad off to the driver's side. Initially, we passed it by, but then turned around and came back, and it was perfect!

Nothing but open farmland all around us. Mike found this satellite image of the place.

There were no signs or fences indicating we shouldn't be there and so we pulled off and started setting up.

My friend Judy is a "birder," meaning she loves looking for birds, and so she had some rather sophisticated "spotting scopes" and cameras. It was early morning and so there was plenty of time to get set up.

There's my friend Judy when she came out from under her towel. (The sun was bright, and she was having difficulty seeing her screen.)

Off in the distance was this barn.

And there were some little things to keep us occupied and entertained while we waited.

Around 9:30, it started. These pictures of the partial were taken with my iPhone, holding some eclipse glasses over the lens.

As you can imagine, we were excited, and this meant the requisite selfie.

Then it continued on...

until it reached totality. This picture was taken using a 70-300 mm telephoto lens and a 1.4x teleconverter attached to an Olympus E-3 DSLR.

As it approached totality, the light changed, getting dimmer and dimmer. It also grew colder, and I donned the sweater I had with me. At totality, there was darkness, except for some fading sunset light 360° around the horizon. We could see the planet Mercury below the sun and to the left (not visible in my image). Also, the planet Mars was above and to the right. Higher up we could see the planet Venus. Exactly 1 minute and 48 seconds later, it was over. The time passed so quickly, we could scarcely believe it was over.

And that was when the traffic started, heading back into town. There were miles-long back-ups at every intersection requiring a stop. At that point, it didn't matter. We were so stoked, we didn't mind the traffic, and it didn't dampen our spirits one iota.

We headed into McMinnville for some lunch, and a quick stop at the fabric store, where I was able to find the background fabric I've been looking for (more on that later). For now, I wanted to give you this video simulation of the eclipse, just in case you missed it because of location or cloud cover. It looks exactly like the real thing.

If you can't see the video, then click right here.

When we got home, I walked around and took a few pictures of the blooming things in our own yard. The mint is blooming now, and covered with bees.

In fact, bees are crawling all over pretty much every flower in the garden.

The echinacea are continuing to thrill me.

And the smallest of the sunflowers has bloomed now. I thought this one had died, but it pulled itself up by the bootstraps, and there it is...blooming away.

As I'm writing this, Judy is heading back to her home in California, and it's time to get back to what passes for normal around here. I did all my housework in preparation for having a house guest, and so there's not much to do other than sew. It's a CSA pick-up day, and we're all out of coffee...which practically requires a 911 call. Except for running those errands, it's going to be an NBS day (nothing but sewing).