The ISS and a Meteor

Well, it looks like autumn has arrived. Matthew and I have just been to the shop, but we walked round the block twice so that I could do my mile. We had our hoodies and winter coats on, and it was very nippy on the nose and ears – more wintry than autumny. Man, a year really isn't very long at all. Six months since life went really weird, and it's already getting dark early. 

You'll recall from the start of the first lockdown that this is our street. Oh! I've just noticed that the grass has been cut, in a fashion. That's cool.

You'll recall as well that this is the triangle of grass at the end of our street. I now have approximately twenty-three photos of these trees for no reason at all. I don't know why I keep taking them. In fact, I don't know why I take as many photos of anything as I do when I know I won't show you all of them. I think I'm keeping a record for myself – is this a compulsion? Have I got OCD? Probably not, but I think I'll attempt to take fewer photos anyway. 

I shouldn't have bothered with this evening's photos, which are all blurred. This is the street behind ours – you can sort of tell that there's a local lockdown going on because the streets are a bit empty again. Not as empty as they were six months ago, but it's still quiet out. Maybe everyone's in the pub though, getting a skinful before 10pm ... which is when the virus comes out to socialise, of course.

Here's our Spar shop from the side. Very similar to every other Spar shop in the world. Did you know that Spar is a Dutch franchise, and it's been around for nearly ninety years? And the UK has the highest number of Spar shops, with 2,620. Oh yes, we love our Spars, expensive as they are.

Matthew loves this weather, and he was very chatty on the way home, telling me about his favourite Halloween lollipops that they sell at the Spar, and all the things that we have to look forward to over the next few months. Actually, this took him nearly the whole way home, as he went through each month in detail and found something to look forward to in each one, bless his positive and happy little heart.

Autumn night skies are a bit gorgeous. You can't tell from this photo because I took it while walking, so it's blurred and badly framed. But it was a gorgeous sky, promise. 

But, here is my most exciting Daily Lockdown Walk video yet! I didn't know it was in the vicinity, so we saw this by accident, but here's the International Space Station for you. It's a gorgeous thing, and we've seen it lots of times. Matthew always mentions how exciting it was when it passed right out over our heads as we sat on the beach in Aberystwyth last year – that was the first time the boys had seen it. It never ceases to amaze though. 

What made this even better was that, as I was recording, Matthew started jumping up and down next to me, but in total silence because he didn't want his voice to be heard on the video – he had glanced behind us and seen a meteor! It was his first one ever, and it was close and very big – there was no doubt about what it was. 

We were very excited about these two awesome surprises, which we wouldn't have seen if we hadn't decided to go to the shop at the exact time that we did. Amazing.

But Matthew quickly went back to his 'this is what we've got to look forward to' list because he'd started it and he needed to finish it before we got back to the house. 

Mile walked, celestial astonishments seen, job done.

Until tomorrow, shooting stars.

WQ