A MOON ECLIPSE TO END 2009

We spent New Years eve in Daisy Cottage and what a wonderful night it was.  We didn't arrive there until the evening when night had already fallen.  Important things first on that frosty evening.  No not light the fire but rather out to the paved area to set up our tripods to capture the eclipse of the moon predicted for that night.  It was literally freezing!  Tripods set up, I ran inside to make a warming coffee and tea for us and back out to the cold again.  The sky was the most beautiful inky blue and as clear as crystal.  We are so lucky not to have high rise buildings here in Donegal thus giving us huge skies to look at.

So after waiting around for a while.  Freezing.  We were repaid, albeit slowly, with the partial eclipse of the moon.

The Patrial Eclipse of the Moon ~ New Years Eve 2009

Photos taken, tripods collapsed and there then ensued our usual dash to the laptops to compare photographs and whose was best.  We do this every time after taking photographs and it is good craic with neither of us giving in that the other might have taken the better photographs.  The one above is one I took and I think it is pretty representative of what we were watching.

So photo comparisons over, a quick meal was made so that we could be in our 'local' for midnight.  Just before midnight we entered out 'local' thinking it would be packed but not a soul other than the owner.  I thought something must have happened but Damien (the owner) assured me all was well but that on New Years eve all the folks go to his father's bar where there was live music.  So the three of us 'cheered' in the New Year and then headed off to his father's bar a few yards down the street.

What a great nights craic ensued.  The people of the area are so welcoming and so much fun you can just sit at any table and you'll be involved in the conversation immediately.  The music was good, the place was warm and cosy and the atmosphere was great.  We decided we would be good and go home early (well 2am) but on the way out we met a retired police sergeant who knew himself and of course a big conversation about the old days in the local courts got up.  Back in to the bar ~ way too early to go home said the retired gentleman!  More craic at the bar with other locals, much laughter and good fun.

Eventually at around 3.30am we made our way home in the frosty night air with two friends and into the warmth of Daisy Cottage to finish the night off with a nice glass of champagne infront of the very welcome fire.  Shortly after we bade our friends goodnight and they walked off up the street home and myself and himself retired, thankfully, to our warm bed.