Winter into Spring
Snapshots of the Moon and Dorset with snippets from the diary at what turns out to be a difficult time.
When the days and nights are roughly of equal length it’s time to close the part of my online diary that runs from December Solstice to March Equinox. Anything goes in there from whole story scenes to a very private rant to unavoidable news.
The diary gets too big and baggy if I keep it going for a whole year and takes ages to load, so I divide it into astronomical sections.
Some tiny fragments with photos.
In chronological order:
Thursday 23 December 2021
Language LearningLearning Welsh from the programme notes to Pobol y Cwm:
Mae euogrwydd yn taro Colin fel gordd
euogrwydd – guilt
taro – hit/to hit
fel gordd – like a hammer
Guilt hits Colin like a hammer :
Mae euogrwydd yn taro Colin fel gordd
Would guilt hit me like a hammer be
roedd euogrwydd yn taro fi fel gordd?
Monday 27 December 2021
Something about the weatherChristmas Day was wet and quiet.
Boxing Day: cold and sunny.

Boxing Day. Plenty of people about at West Bay

A few moments later looking the other way.
Ideas/scenes/dialogue for a storyAngela: ‘I like wearing a mask. It’s handy because I’m hyperventilating anyway.’
Monday 3 January 2022
Notes to SelfMy thoughts are like children running screaming round the playground. Perhaps the one I want to pick is the thoughtful child at the back.
Allotment and gardenSunday 8 January 2022
We could grow our own flax. Make linen!

The Last of the Pumpkins
(slumped in the oven for easy peeling)
which can lead me into all kinds of avenues, such as:
Friday 21 January 2022
Looking at the Moon
A Waning Gibbous Moon from my kitchen window 08.27 on Friday 21 January 2022
Below the same Moon phase in one of my favourite apps


Left: Northern Hemisphere. Right: Southern Hemisphere
in the app ‘Phases of the Moon’ for 21 January 2022

Waning Crescent Moon at Dawn
28 January 2022
Tuesday 1 February 2022
A New Moon. A New Lunar Year.
The Year of the Tiger …
The Moon never turns its back on us
in the series: Things I would like to do really well if I had another life. Maybe with a better camera.
to photograph the Moon – advice from NASA
‘Set your camera’s white balance for daylight, and try a fast shutter speed with a smaller aperture’
A spring posy from the garden for …

Thursday 24 February 2022
Russia has invaded Ukraine.
I’ve often wondered what it must have felt like for ordinary people when Germany invaded Poland.
Friday 25 February 2022
Russian troops getting closer to Kyiv (let’s say it the way Ukrainians say it).
Radio 4, the Today Programme, focuses on Ukraine for days. I mostly trust the BBC for news. Reporters like Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet (still in Kyiv) have seen what Russia did in Syria and still care about the people there too, and don’t stop sending messages about the situation in Afghanistan or Yemen either, but in the mainstream most other news is blotted out for a while. Floods in Australia? Hardly a mention. Not when Europe is witnessing the kind of times we thought were going to die out of living memory.
Roedd euogrwydd yn taro fi fel gordd

Waxing Crescent Moon
18.29 4 March 2022 (looking West)

Nine star broccoli seedling
12 March 2022

Daffodil with reflection

99 per cent Full Moon
17 March 2022
Life has been evolving on our planet for billions of years and in many beautiful ways. Some things haven’t changed all that much – the way the Moon looks from the Earth, for instance. But humans have the capacity to inflict great damage in a very short time.
Some ways to help:
From the Ukrainian Institute in London: Russia’s War against Ukraine. What you can do to support Ukraine and Ukrainians
Choose Love ‘does whatever it takes to help refugees and displaced people’
DEC The Disasters and Emergency Committee – currently highlighting appeals for Ukraine and Afghanistan
Share the Meal is ‘the world’s first app against global hunger’. You can donate as little as 80 cents (US) or 65p to the United Nations World Food Programme
The Equinox was on 20 March 2022. Meteorological Spring began on 1 March in the Northern Hemisphere and now it is also Astronomical Spring.
I hope there are good things to report between now and the Solstice on 21 June.
If you have hopes and wishes, or ideas about how to ‘fix Putin’ so he will want to make peace, please let me know!