Poor harvests, eclipses, strange lights in the sky... not Europe on the cusp of the first millenium, but 2024.
The price of food has gone up and we had the most colourful northern lights I've ever seen. Normally we have to travel north away from light pollution and cross fingers for a clear sky, but these were so bright, they were clearly visible in town.
Northern Lights:
And now there's a comet in the west, we decided to go see it! Our western horizon is blocked by the Pentland Hills, so up Castlelaw we went for sunset.
Comet hunters:
Near the top we met a woman coming down with her dog - she came for the comet but was hungry, and was going home for her tea. On the top was a well-rugged up man with binoculars. "I don't have much luck with comets," he said, but he'd come on the off-chance anyway. The Isle of Arran burned in the last fire of sunset out west, as the moon hung heavy behind us. Another man appeared. We wanted to get our dog down the steep bit before it got truly dark, so left. Fifteen minutes later, as we discovered on social media, the comet hunters on top were rewarded with what they came for.
But who could say we hadn't had a wonderful experience anyway?
