Daystar burning bright above
What future do you herald?
Rise or ruin? Pain or love?
Favoured or imperilled?
No man can know the threads of fate
And those who claim to lie
For Daystar it is drawing late
Tis early for you and I
New Year’s Day always seems to hold a special kind of calm and it was in abundance today as I walked through the lamp lit twilight streets to the park. Herring Gulls were calling and as I entered the woods they were joined by Great Tits and Song Thrushes.
I crossed the Car Park and headed down to the Castle past patches of Dog Rose and Japanese Spindle. Green Woodpeckers and Goldfinches were out on the wing and in voice and a few early wildlife watchers had set up along the Clifftops to take in the two active Peregrine Falcons.
My constant companions throughout my stroll were a beautiful waning crescent moon and beside it Venus, third brightest object in the sky (fourth if you count the ISS) Jupiter was also out but by this time it was too bright to make out and only Venus remained. That one always last to go.
Greater Black Backed Gulls and Shags patrolled the wavetops as I passed by the Tilly Whim Caves, a Jay screeching from some hidden part of the undergrowth. I headed up Lighthouse Slope and circled back over the Downs to the Learning Centre past fields of Yellow Meadow Ant hills. Chaffinches were calling from the surrounding trees and the sun had risen enough to assume its customary yellow colour. It’s a new day my friends, 2019 awaits.