August

 

Well, another Summer month, another heatwave. That was the fifth one of the year. That's way to many for me. What's been far more worrying is the lack of rain. And the subsequent wild fires. At least this latest heatwave was fairly short and it has been a lot fresher with even a little rain at times. The trouble is we need a miserable, wet Autumn and Winter to replenish the reservoirs and soften the ground. 

This month also saw some wonderful astronomy opportunities and the weather actually allowed for fantastic viewing of a couple of them.  There was the Solar Eclipse of the Sun on the 12th, and here in Cornwall, we had the most coverage of the Sun, by the Moon, of anywhere in the UK. We had just over 96% coverage. It certainly was an experience. Luckily I managed to get hold of some Eclipse glasses, so my Wife and I were able to view it. That was a pretty amazing sight to see the Sun first looking a little like Pac Man, before becoming a crescent and then a thin sliver of sunlight. And the light became very weird. Almost eery in it's nature. Much dimmer than normal, but with a totally different feeling than twilight. The light almost seemed filtered through a gauze, and with the little remaining light of the Sun, still fairly high in the sky, it gave a unique side lighting which doesn't usually occur. The closest light I can compare it too, is that light you can sometimes get in early Autumn, when the Sun is low in the sky and filtered through a layer of cloud, and produces the most beautiful filtered light. Birds began to roost, and it went very still. It was quite magical. It never got dark enough for the stars to begin to appear. Not even the bright planet Venus was visible, and I scanned with my binoculars to see if I could detect it. But it definitely wasn't visible. And then it slowly became lighter again as the moon passed over the Sun and it returned to full light. It was interesting to be able to compare the actual twilight with the eclipse light, because the Sun set about an hour after the eclipse. And the real twilight was reassuringly normal compared to the weird eclipse light. It was a memorable experience that I'm very glad I witnessed. 

But that wasn't the end of the astronomical show. August 12th also marks the most active night of shooting star activity of the year. When the Earth passes through a dust cloud left by a comet, and we get the Perseid meteor shower. So a few hours after the eclipse, I was to be found sitting on a reclining chair in the garden, and gazing skywards, looking for shooting stars. And there were plenty of them, this year. Helped by the Moon being in close proximity to the Sun, after sunset we had a moonless dark night with no clouds and perfect still conditions. It also helps that where I live, the street lights are turned off at 12.30am, so it makes stargazing, so much better. And it was a wonderful display with lots of meteors and some very bright ones. It was a very enjoyable evening communing with the heavens.  One thing that I've noticed increasing dramatically over the years, is the amount of man-made objects traversing our night sky. There were constantly satellites visible as they orbited the planet. I noticed that there even seems to be a satellite highway, with heavy traffic, that runs past the handle of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) and then passes the W of Cassiopeia.  Sometimes there are several at once. Hopefully they don't have satellite jams. The song lyric by Billy Bragg sprang to my mind.

"I saw two shooting stars last night, 

I wished on them,

But they were only satellites, 

It's wrong to wish on space hardware, 

But I wished, I wished, 

I wished you cared"

New England by Billy Bragg

Sadly it was too cloudy to see the luner eclipse later in the month, but I've seen lots of them, down the years. They are always beautiful. They occur quite regularly, so there will be plenty of other chances to see one.

There were also some quite dramatic night skies with the moon illuminating the dark clouds in a wonderful way.

My Wife is still very up and down with health  and her slow decline is continuing. It's obviously making life difficult for the both of us, but we are managing ok. Hopefully I can get things happening on the respite care front, so I can finally get some time off.

As to my own health and fitness, I'm staying quite healthy and I've been doing quite well with my fitness, but I need to do more. But I'm usually hitting my steps and intensive activity targets, which is a good start. My weight is now down to 92.8kg, which is definitely going in the right direction. But I've got a long way to go on this journey. During August I concentrated on walking as often as I could.  During September I hope to begin running again. I'm hoping to be ready to do a Park Run sometime next year, which is 5km. So I have a target to aim at, that is achievable. 

I only managed to dress once this month, right at the beginning. I had a lovely new cardigan to model and the weather had a cooler interlude between heatwaves, so it was the ideal opportunity. I wore it with my favourite dress and I really enjoyed my afternoon. And it definitely kept the dysphoria at bay. I was quite pleased with the look. A nice everyday kind of look. Included here are some photos of the session. 

I was watching the news and they had the annual story about the school leavers getting their GCSE and Btec results, and it had me thinking back to my school exam results day. My final two years of school were very difficult. I was dyslexic,with ADHD and autism. It hadn't been an easy ride, but at my schools in Cornwall, they had worked really hard to help me to succeed. Then my family moved to Hampshire, and I went to a school that was failing and made no provision for my learning needs. As a result I left school with just one GCSE O Level. So results day was rather sad for me. Luckily I had the safety net of the Sixth Form College, and there I thrived, getting another 4 O Levels in my first year there, and that allowed me to stay on for another 2 years and take A Levels. I began 3 courses but had to withdraw from the Biology course after missing too much practical coursework, due to being in hospital following a life threatening road traffic accident. But I passed two A Levels in History and English, and had a much happier results day. Further to that, in my 40s, I began studying for a Btec Level 1 Certificate in photography. I passed with a Distinction, and so I sat Levels 2 and 3 Certificates and passed both with the same result. This gave me the confidence to study for a Btec Level 3 Diploma and again I passed this with a Distinction, which was the highest mark available back then. So I got a qualification equivalent to two A Levels.  That's basically 4 A Levels worth of points that I have to my name, which means I could study for a degree if I wanted to. Something I couldn't have imagined on that results day when I was 16. I will write more about my education misadventures in a future post. 

Reminiscing about my education achievements made me think about my photography. I haven't used my DSLR camera since 2019. It's something that's fallen by the wayside with the increase in my caring duties.  I dug out my camera equipment and checked it out. It seems to all be in working order. So I'm going to try and get back into my photography. It's something I have a talent for, and I shouldn't let it go to waste.

Sadly some wonderful people left for heaven without warning, this month. 

Dolly Parton was someone who the terms Icon and Legend actually don't do proper justice. She was probably one of the most wonderful people to walk upon this earth. Incredibly talented, beautiful, funny, with a voice like an angel and a brilliant songwriter A fabulous entertainer and an astute businesswoman. All of that could easily make her an icon. But it was her wonderful warmth and love for all humanity that elevated her to a whole other level.

 She grew up in dirt poor conditions in a mountain shack in the Smoky Mountains of Tennesee, and despite those humble and difficult beginnings, she used her talent and her savvy, to elevate herself to be able to live a fantastic life. She was just so full of life and sparkle. She became about as famous as anyone could become. And yet she never became a diva. She never forgot where she came from and her humble beginnings. She never placed herself above anyone else, because of who she was, what she had achieved or what she had. She was always Dolly from the Smoky Mountains. 

She used her talents to create business opportunities and wealth for herself. But she wasn't greedy or grasping in any kind of way. She always told her story of who she was, where she came from and how she got here, with total honesty and pride. And a genuine love of her roots, as tough as they were. She created a fabulous fun image that radiated joy to the world. And she gave so much more than her voice, her songs, and her sparkle to the world. She gave all of us her love. And in a very real way. 

 She was a champion of the poor, and the LGBTQ+ community. She was generous with her time and her money as a renowned philanthropist. Her father was unable to read or write, despite being a clever man. Dolly wasn't ashamed of that and she never tried to hide it. Rather she told the world about this wonderful clever man, who couldn't read and write because of the poverty in which he grew up in. And she worked to make sure that poor children in America, always had the opportunity to have books to help them read and write. When humanity was faced with a existential pandemic, she made herself the public face of the vaccination campaign and not only that she gave a huge sum of money to one of the companies researching the vaccines. She just gave us so much of her love. 

I'm not religious, so I don't believe in the First Coming, yet alone a Second Coming. But if anyone was going to descend from Heaven to save us all, they wouldn't go far wrong if they conducted themselves like Dolly Parton. 

As this is primarily transgender blog, and Dolly was a fierce defender of the trans and queer community, I will end with my favourite Dolly quote.

"If I'd have been born a man, I would of had to have been a drag queen"

Tim Curry was someone that I discovered shortly after I found out what a transvestite was, and that I was one. And here he was in 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' wearing stockings, suspenders and a basque, declaring that he was a "Sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania" while he played Dr Frank N'Furter in this wonderfully camp and zany musical. Wow! It's not just me then. "I'm a sweet transvestite from Helston, Cornwall" I wanted to shout back at the screen. It was a role that crossed and blurred the boundaries between queer and mainstream culture and it was iconic. He was actually straight and not a transvestite, but he knew the power of that iconic role and the responsibilities it brought, and he was unwavering in his support of LGBTQ+ rights. He had a difficult time at the end of his life, with illness and disability, but still voiced that support. 

So sadly that's two vociferous trans allies, and all round, wonderful people that we lost on the same day. But their wonderful legacy will live on.

So what are my plans for September? Well it's going to be a very busy month. I'm calling it 'Sort Out September' because I'm going to be sorting a lot of stuff out. I can only sort things out in September, because it's the only month that starts with an S. Actually it's because it's not too hot or cold, so a good month for doing stuff before Winter. I'm going to be doing a lot of tidying and clearing. Installing a new replacement fish tank. Sorting out respite care arrangements. And a whole host of other tasks. Hopefully I'll find time to dress too. My sister in law and her husband are possibly going to visit too, which is nice, except they are unable to give exact dates, which is not what I need in 'Sort Out September'. I have plans to make, things to sort.

When I write my next monthly round up, I will be tired from 'Sort Out September', but hopefully resting, because I can't think of anything that fits with October. Until then, stay fabulous 

Dee

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