English Valley High!

My House, photo by Jon Willoughby

Did you see the Perseid meteor shower last night?  I wish I had a better vantage point than my well lit burb. The sky also had a bit of a haze which made it difficult to see anything but the brightest stars.  Still we went out around 11 to see what we could see.

Google Image

Wish I could say this is what we saw...but we didn't.  I am a city girl who has only seen the Milky Way once. Yes, sad but true.  I was in Colorado back in 1974, along the shores of the Colorado River on a river raft trip.  I was scared and homesick, but still vividly remember seeing the stars like I never had before. My sweetheart had a similar experience in Medford, Oregon on a boat drifting down a river.  Once you see that stars like that, you never forget.

Yahoo Image

Instead this is more like what I saw last night, one beautiful streak in the sky.  One meteor and three mosquito bites.  We went inside after a while and went to bed where I watched the NASA live feed of the meteor shower from  Marshall Space Flight Center.  It was a great to see and listen to all the experts while in the comfort of my bed, but I dream of a time I'll watch from a place with really dark skies.

The English Valley High reference is of course to Rocky Mountain High...the song John Denver wrote about watching the Perseid from a sleeping bag high up in the mountains in Aspen, Colorado.  "I've seen it raining fire in the sky.  Friends around a campfire and everybody's high..." Someday...

Thanks for stopping by and for your kind comments.  Enjoy this beautiful day.