Shooting stars

Waking at about half past midnight last night I decided I'd go into the garden and see if I could spot any shooting stars.

We see meteors/shooting stars as the earth moves through streams of tiny pieces of debris left by comets and asteroids, in this instance, the trail of the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle - catchy name that. After a glorious day with clear skies cloud was starting to gather so my view was limited. Next door's garden light was also very bright but I plonked myself down on the sun-lounger and waited.

I didn't have to wait long. Over the course of maybe fifteen minutes I saw six shooting stars, four out of the corners of my eyes but two which were real 'Wow!' moments. According to the Natural History Museum, most shooting stars are dust-sized particles. Dust-sized? They also say that it's likely the earth will be hit by something of significant size eventually. But scientists are keeping watch so we'll have warning.

I'm not sure that is as reassuring as it's meant to be.

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On my way home from Rhosilli I listened to a program about the Green Ham women. Sorry, nothing to do with Doctor Seuss. I mean Greenham.

The first Greenham women were mainly Welsh peace activists who marched there from Cardiff in 1981 and set up a camp. They were protesting the government's decision to allow American cruise missiles to be based on Greenham Common, near Reading. Originally there were some men who joined the camp but a year or so after its creation it was decided it should be women only for issues of safety.

From then on the camp and the words Greenham women came to mean more than peace activism. It was a fight for women's rights and against the power of the patriarchy.

In the mid-1980s we were living in Southampton and I joined a local group, Families Against the Bomb. My participation consisted of meeting with three other like-minded women and drinking barley tea. It was hideous. I also was a link on the phone chain, which alerted people to US manoeuvres so they could go and get in the way as much as possible. 

On a couple of occasions I visited Greenham with a friend. I joined the rota for cooking panfuls of hearty (vegetarian) soups and delivering them there. My motivation was purely anti-bomb and hearing on the radio yesterday how the focus of the camp had changed helped me make sense of the feeling of distance I experienced, a feeling of mistrust that made me uncomfortable. We were all supposed to be on the same side but it felt very much like us and them.