Stargazing

The days are so hot and heavy at the moment that you feel as though you are wading through water as you wander in this never ending heat.

But evenings… evenings are different. Last night after we had put the little human to bed we drifted back down into the slightly cooler ground floor and then continued out into the garden.

The days sun sinking lower and lower every evening but behind houses and trees allowing the garden to fall into a cooler shadier place to be.

I sat at our little bistro table with a glass of Merlot and listened as the trees rustled with a slight breeze. The breeze unfortunately did not extend as far as the ground but it was pleasant to hear all the same.

The sky was still a lovely light blue streaked with illuminated contrails from planes heading off to other lands beyond our shores. They lit up the sky like strobe lights and I enjoyed the peace and tranquility that enveloped me as I sat happily under them.

Birds began to flit across as the sky began to grow dimmer. It happened at such a slow pace that we barely noticed as the world around us grew more shaded.

Glancing up to the sky I squinted my eyes, in search of that first star. And memories of wishes danced in my head from childhood.

My eyes almost immediately darted towards a tiny pinprick sized dot of light. The sky still a beautiful blue but the star visible nonetheless. Battling against the dimming light to shine brighter and brighter as the world darkened.

‘Starlight star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may I wish I might have this wish I wish tonight… I wish…’

At thirty five most people have given up on childhood fancies of dreams and wishes but there is something about seeing that first star in the sky. It’s a wish I still always allow myself to believe in even if it doesn’t come true. It still feels magical to me.

Perhaps because when I look to the stars I am unable to comprehend the vastness of what I’m seeing. Other worlds and galaxies that are yet to be discovered. Or simply the fact that the star I am so hell bent on wishing on might not even be there any longer. It’s curious that because of the amount of time it takes for the light to travel to a point of visibility here on the earth that the star behind the light may have imploded into nothingness and what I’m actually seeing is simply a magical light coming out of nowhere.

Once the first wish has been made other stars make themselves known as I scan the sky. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, they continue to appear and before you know it you are surrounded by darkness without quite knowing how you got there. The stars having distracted you from the sun disappearing further and further down on the horizon.

I look out for the quick flight of bats but alas there are none. Not that I had expected any. I have never seen them here. My mind transports me once again to summer nights of my childhood when the sun had disappeared and stars had come out to play. We were still playing in the garden under the sprinkling of stars with just enough light to make each other out but not enough to decipher facial features. Bats would swoop and flit across the gardens. No doubt catching as many insects as they could.

A whole new natural world comes out to play when it’s time for the stars to have their time to shine, a world that I make a mental note of to explore some more as summer drifts into autumn and autumn into winter.

———

Charlotte Fay is a nature writer and you can find me at @charlofay on Instagram.