i ♥ sky.

One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is to lay down in a field, on a rock, in the sand--at an incline with my head on downward slope--and watch the world upside down. I love how the blood reverses its rush. How fast the clouds glide overhead, the shapes they create as they huddle then dissipate, the condors or geese circle and v between. It's seeing world far away, sped up and simultaneously slowed. If I'm gazing at all this with a loved one, all the better. 

A tad before twilight yesterday, the moon fully eclipsed the sun. We knew it would be difficult for us to see here, what with the sun already heading to sink behind the southernmost Andes. Clouds rolled in to further filter our view. 

{just before the darkest moments}

Advisory: Never never never look directly at the sun, even during an eclipse. I remember how important my teacher made this out to be when we tried to view a partial eclipse in grade school. Just as you can set fire to grass using the sun and magnifying glass, so does the lens in your eye concentrate the sun's power toward the back of your eyeball. It will burn your retina, causing severe eye damage or blindness. Before any eclipse event, look up all the ways in which you can safely view an eclipse. Most are simple and inexpensive methods, requiring that your back is to the sun and that you view the shadow play of the moon covering up the sun--projected onto something else. 

 {post eclipse light + sunset}

But even though our view wasn't as good as it was, say, on Easter Island, it was still super cool. Sunlight pinked the hills as it set, and then for about two minutes all was dark. In a transition so smooth, the sky and peaks brightened again. But since it was sunset time anyway, the clouds lit up in a stunning display, first colored the flesh of mandarins and mangoes, deepening to ruby grapefruit and watermelons, finishing off with red and purple grapes. (I miss fruit, can you tell?)

{pinkening}

Find more love here, for Much Love Mondays.

{image 1: unknown, please let me know if it's yours; all others by me}