Well, I say we decided, but in truth Barley didn't voice an opinion about watching the solar eclipse, he was just happy to be going out for a walk. Hehe!
Anyway, we'd arranged to meet a friend and one of his dogs, a beautiful Bull Terrier, overlooking the sea by our house.
The three of us, me, Mr.R and Barley arrived at about 9:10am, our friend arrived a few minutes later. The solar eclipse was to occur at about 9:30am.
When we walked up to the pit cage (a monument for the closed down coal mine) there were a few other people waiting and watching the sky.
We'd chosen this place as it's the closest high point to out house, and as it's open countryside overlooking the sea, it seemed like a good place to view the solar event.
Solar Eclipse 2015 - County Durham
Anyway, as I said there were a few other people there too; a couple of blokes with cameras set up on tripods, and a lady with her two dogs.
Me and Mr.R stood chatting to the lady, and our friend as we all waited, hoping the clouds would clear enough for us to get a glimpse of the solar eclipse.
Thankfully the Universe answered me; I'd been standing asking for a good view of the sun, and the clouds parted, leaving a small gap through which we saw the sun, and a decent amount of the actual solar eclipse.
The last time Mr.R and me experienced a total solar eclipse was when we lived in London and we were standing in Trafalgar Square watching it. I think it was August 1999, but as my memory is not good, I may be incorrect. Amnyway, it was a surreal moment, as everything stopped, even the birds were silent, and as the day darkened, there was an eerie atmosphere - but in a good way. It was a wonderful experience.
Solar Eclipse 2015, sunrays on the sea - County Durham
Anyway, today the solar eclipse was a lot more than we were expecting simply because the sky was almost all clouds, so we didn't really think we'd be able to see anything.
But the Universe blessed us and we did get to see the spectacle in the sky.
As the weather was so very cloudy we didn't have such a good view as some areas of the UK and it didn't go particularly dark at all, but we were happy that we'd decided to go out to see the solar eclipse.
Unusually for me, as I always take hundreds of photos of everything, I didn't take any photos of the solar eclipse, not a single shot.
Why? Because I was too engrossed in talking to the lady with her two dogs. Ha! Typical me, a compulsive chatterbox.
When I'd first see the two men with the tripods I thought to myself that I'd take their photo later, because they were in silhouette, sitting inside the pit cage monument. It would have been a good shot, but as I didn't take the photo, you'll just have to take my word for how good it would have been. Hehe!
Solar Eclipse 2015, short video - County Durham
Thankfully Mr.R is the strong silent type, so he wasn't chatting, and he shot lots of photos and some video too - which I've borrowed for this blog post.
The video is silent, Mr.R had to strip the sound off - it was full of me, the lady with two dogs, and our friend all chatting. Hahaha!
I messed about with the two photos I borrowed from Mr.R, but if you want to see more photos and video here's a couple of links to todays newspapers -
Solar eclipse 2015: highlights - The Telegraph
'Breathtaking' solar eclipse witnessed by millions - BBC News
Did you see the solar eclipse today?
Did you make a special outing to see it, or were you lucky enough to see it from wherever you were?
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