eclipse

Its sunny now, and daddy and uncle Graham have gone to see something called a 'Radio 1 road show' so mummy and I thought we'd write to tell you all about our day, which wasn't as sunny as we'd hoped, but was still quite strange.

Setting up for the eclipse

For some time, mummy and daddy have been telling me that we were going to have another holiday. This time, it wouldn't take as long to get there as when we went to France, and we stopped at granny and grandpa's in Salisbury for my birthday party on the way. We have been staying in a little house, where I'm sleeping with mummy and daddy again, and my auntie and uncle are in the same house. We've been to see some very little pigs, and a very large church (Truro) and we've been to see some noisy water again, which I liked more than last time. But apparently, what happened today was the main point of the trip here!
We got up a little bit earlier this morning, and piled lots of equipment into the car. As well as all of my usual requirements, mummy and daddy took three cameras and of course the laptop computer, and Uncle Graham a huge long white tube, almost as tall as himself.

We drove a short way to a car park on the top of some cliffs where some other friends met us. They had been there for a bit longer and had saved us a space on the grass. Some people had slept there overnight to get a good space. I sat on one of the blankets, and had lots of new people to play with whilst mummy and daddy played with their cameras, putting them on the top of three legged tables. There were lots of white clouds, and lots of concerned faces. Would the cloud clear? We played for some time, and then it started to get a little wet. Mummy tried to get me to wear my new rain coat, but I didn't want to, so she put a large umbrella over me instead, and one of my new friends cuddled me underneath it, whilst I played with my cousin Caroline. Then it started to get even wetter, so mummy and daddy decided to put some things back in the car - including me!

Before the 'eclipse'

The sky darkens

Whilst mummy was playing with me in the car, daddy came over and said something, and ran off again with one of the cameras. Mummy took me out of the car, and I noticed that the rain had stopped, but now it was getting darker. We walked back down to where the others were standing on the grass, and the closer we got, the darker it got. I didn't mind, because mummy was cuddling me. She had to call out to daddy, as he hadn't seen us. We stood there as lots of people said things like 'wow!' and 'gosh!' and 'isn't it amazing?'. All around, we could see little lights flashing, as people took photographs of infinity with a flash with a range of 5 metres. And then, as if someone had started turning the lights on with a dimmer switch, it started getting light again. We never saw the sun, but we could see the land opposite getting lighter, until within a few minutes it was the same as before.

Then it all seemed a bit strange. Every one was talking about what had happened, gasping and saying how great it was. I couldn't really see what it was all about - the sky got dark and then light again. Afterwards we went back to a lady's house, and we had our picnic in her living room (it was still too wet to stay outside). They were still all talking about it, and watching people on television talking about it. They said how it didn't matter that they hadn't been able to take any photographs of the sun, as it was important just to be there, and to have experienced it. I suppose I experienced it, but I don't know why it mattered. They said this thing only happens about once in a person's lifetime. The next one in Britain is in 2090. Some one said I might see that one too, but they wouldn't. Perhaps when I'm 92 I'll understand what the 'eclipse' was all about...

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