Celestial phenomena! And crazy dog-owners!

Not just weather(wo)men but just about everyone seems to be posting pictures of the northern lights. I must confess to having taken a look out of our attic windows late last night just to see if I could see anything. After all, you never know. But it must have been the wrong time, or too cloudy or maybe I needed to be at the top of one of our hills. As it was, all I saw was black darkness. 

 

But here’s a picture of the northern lights as seen from Crosby beach, not far from where I grew up. That’s one of Anthony Gormley’s men in he foreground, to give it a bit of perspective. Otherwise it’s just a very flat expanse of beach.

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f the northern lights could be seen from Crosby beach I assume they could also be seen from Southport or Ainsdale beach, the beaches of my childhood. 

 

And, yes, here’s a photo I just found of the lights seen from Ainsdale beach. 

To the best of my knowledge, we never saw such celestial phenomena off our beach when I was a child. The best we saw on a clear day was the Welsh hills to the south and Blackpool to the north. And now, living fairly close to,the foothills of the Pennines, we usually don’t see many celestial phenomena as it’s too cloudy as a general rule. 

I suppose that at one time such fantastic displays would have been taken as an omen of some kind - angry gods sending is a message. Maybe that's still the case: a message about climate change! 

I may not have managed to see the northern lights but this morning I saw a deer as I ran through the wooded area between the two millponds. It’s the first one I’ve seen this year, indeed the first I’ve seen in the whole of the last twelve months. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to get my phone out to catch a picture as he was moving too fast. But it was good to see the deer around again.

In the Italian conversation class yesterday one of our number, just returned from a stay in a language school in Turin, was complaining about the increase in the numbers of dogs in restaurants in Italy. She is allergic to dogs and really does not appreciate sitting close to one in a restaurant. Nobody else, she told us, seemed to object. In fact, complaints led to suggestions that she should simply find another restaurant! Where, no doubt, she would come across the same problem. Our Italian teacher confirmed this increase. Since the pandemic and lockdown, she said, many Italians have gone dog crazy, treating their pets like children, carrying them around in baby slings, referring to themselves as mummy and daddy, dressing the dogs in doggy high fashion and generally being stupid about them. Amazing! 

From the other side of the ocean, I came across this article about proposed laws in Florida to ban dogs from sticking their heads out of car windows. Supposed dog-lovers have got up in arms about, declaring that their dogs “love” to travel with their heads out of the car window. I wonder how these dog owners know these things. And has nobody told them how dangerous it is for dogs’ eyesight to travel with their heads in the wind like that. There’s something about dog ownership that must addle the brain. 

I even notice it within the family, where there is a kind of oneupmanship about whose dog is the better behaved, my daughter’s or my granddaughter’s. On Sunday my daughter’s dog had a go at leaping up at the table to help himself to mashed potato from her plate: definitely no acceptable behaviour! Granddaughter Number One, whose own dog was not present, was quietly smirking. Personally I would rather not have either dog anywhere near the dinner table but there it is. At least when they travel by car they are in proper dog harnesses and in general they are not babied. So it goes. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!