The world from my window

So there we were, enjoying France at its liveliest when someone pointed to the sky. The moon. There was a great chunk missing from it, as if it were made from fromage and someone - or some thing - had taken a bite. A clanger maybe. (I love The Clangers. Here they are on my windowsill at home, courtesy of the good knitters of Lush Places WI). We sitting outside at a village marche gourmand when we witnessed a partial lunar eclipse. What made it even more exciting was that we'd had no prior knowledge it was going to happen. This is because I've stopped listening to the news, too depressed by the whole Brexit debacle, the state of the world in general and the idiots who run it. It's almost fifty years to the day that Neil Armstrong took that one small step and a giant leap for mankind. Back then, I was coming up to nine years old. The moon landing filled me with awe and hope, hope for the bright future that surely lay ahead of all of us.  I still love the idea of s...

Typical.  The sky's clouded over now we're due a spectacular red lunar eclipse . The so-called Blood Moon should be on show tonight from nine o'clock until quarter past ten. But it doesn't look likely from where I'm standing, as the sky is currently a light grey. Shame. Still, we need the rain, and the little we've had so far today is not even as much as the salt and vinegar the lady in the chip van puts on my Tuesday night treat of battered sausage, chips and curry sauce. I wish the heavens would open, spill their load and then the clouds part just before nine o'clock to reveal an orb of striking red. If wishes were horses, I'd have enough to enter the Grand National for each year of my life. The lunar eclipse would be a fitting end to the working week in which people in un-air conditioned offices have sweltered and local builders worked in the heat on rooftops and took on the shape of human finials. Trees stooped in the hedgerows, g...