Finding Orion

Even though the sky was darkening, I decided I would go for a run. Running at night has never bothered me, and in fact, I quite enjoy it. It offers complete anonymity and solitude and is very meditative. I pretty much stay on my end of the island, and I rarely meet any cars. So on with my warm gear and my bright orange reflective vest and off I went.

Running at night is a great time to check out the stars. I am sad to say that I can only identify a couple of constellations. Not even two. One and a half. Okay, I've got the big dipper down. And I can identify Orion's belt. That's it. Just the belt. So, as I was making my way home and looking at the beautifully clear winter sky (I have found the stars to be particularly brilliat this winter) I determined that as soon as I got home, I would google Orion. I wanted to see all of Orion, not just his belt.

Kieran and Heron were game. We found an adequate picture on the computer. I even made a little sketch of the star shapes to aid me in my search. We bundled up and headed down to the breakwater since we couldn't quite see Orion from our place. The breakwater proved to be too bright. We cruised down Water Street past the Waco and down Sea Street where it was nice and dark. And lo and behold. For the very first time, I saw Orion. Not just his belt. His sword, shield, the whole shebang! Wow. As a shooting star shot across the sky, I decided that I need to study these stars a little bit more. They are magical.

Since a blog post feels a bit incomplete (to me) without a photo, let me include one of some great ric rac I found at Marden's the other day. Big, fat, juicy ric rac in gray and olive green. I also grabbed a yard of bright orange ric rac. I mean, how could I resist?