After dark

The tilting of the Earth on it’s axis is felt strongly here. The seemingly endless daylight of the summer rapidly tipping into long nights of winter. With this shift comes the the time for night paddling. For heading out as the sun paints the horizon. Soaking up each chapter in the changing hues of sunset, it feels as though being out on the water doesn’t get more special. And then it gets a bit more special.

One by one the stars appeared in the darkness. First only the brightest in the eastern sky shone through the last of the day light. Gradually more and more pin pricks appeared through the satin darkness of the night until the whole universe arrayed overhead. I’m sure at this point the universe had a wry chuckle to itself as it knew what it still had in store. Bursting with joy to be paddling under a sky full of stars, I rounded an island giving a clear view to the east and the universe’s headline act stepped on stage… One ginormous, shining full moon slid above the horizon. The Sun’s reflected rays bounced of it’s impossibly large looking surface to land on the water right front of me and I paddled home along a moonbeam.