Wow- I don't really know how else to explain how amazing the experience of the eclipse was.  All the build up around it and suddenly it all went quiet and nature just put on the show of a life time.  Nature and science knocked it out of the park this week!

I took some advise and just absorbed the moment and did not take any photos of the sun and moon during the eclipse but had fun documenting all around it and thought I would share ummm just a few, okay more than a few here!



Because the town where I live was in the path of totality it really was front and center in our community.  The weekend before you could have tossed a stone in either direction and found a fun thing to do.  My crew ended up in one of our big parks that day before the eclipse for a 9 mile bike ride and music festival.  My husband made some fun sun/moon photo props, we grabbed some starburst to hand out and hit the trail for some shenanigans!  Little did we know my youngest would have the opportunity to entertain as a larger than life minion!


The bike riders were treated to some local favorites Shakespeare's pizza and tunes by Pat K before heading back to the main park for more music.  Our evening ended with music, beer, and relaxing with our community.



Originally on the day of the eclipse my boys were going to head into school which all had plans to watch and view.  I had tossed around several options for myself and decided to stay in my own backyard.  A friend of mine said it best- it was a moment to just be still.  As it turned out both the boys requested to stay home with me.  I was not going to refuse if they chose to hang with me instead of friends at school- these are my teenagers after all!  I will ignore that maybe they just wanted a day away from school and pretend it was all about hanging out with their mama- who happened to also have a stash of moon pies, sun chips, and starbursts for them!



I started my day off with some delish peaches, french-style yogurt that I could not resist- dang you marketers that know how to get me and some walnuts. I then proceeded to go out in the morning sun and wind my yarn for the special knitting during eclipse day.  I got one of the "Great American Eclipse" yarn kits from Darlin Dixie Knits.  Gorgeous yarn and bag!  When the eclipse started I just sat out on my deck and knit and kept checking out the progress.  We were a little nervous as some hazy clouds started to move in but it never obscured the sun from us.


About 15 minutes before totality I joined my boys on the roof of our house (it is a pretty low pitch) and laid on a blanket and prepared for it.  It was stunning- we had about 2 minutes and 30 some seconds of totality.  A blanket of dark came, the night time insects started singing and I could not take my eyes off the corona- it truly is something I will always remember.  And I cried- I have no idea why, I just did!  When it started to come out of totality and back into partial eclipsing is when I caught some of the crescent shadows on the deck.


After making some yummy simple lunch and eating during the remaining partial eclipse I knit some more and just absorbed the experience.  The rest of the day fell into our normal patterns.  Some homework, some knitting, and soccer practice.


Ironically this is one knitting project that is giving me fits!  I messed up the pattern twice, did a poor job of winding my yarn on an uneven table which created a knotted mess that I did not realize was in the center of the ball till I pulled it out.  So after frogging back the rim of the hat twice and splitting the ball into two and winding by hand I am starting it over today with a different pattern.  So wish me luck on starting it over again- just a sweet simple slouchy hat in this sun infused beautiful wool yarn. It is a long weekend of soccer games between the boys so I should hopefully be able to make lots of progress!

I hope you all had some simple quite moments with the eclipse as well.  We just heard that a portion of our state will be in the next total eclipse in April of 2024.  We will have to travel a couple hours to get to that one but I am pretty sure we will load up the scamp and not miss it!