Lunar Eclipse

My son and I hung around at the Waimakariri Gorge for ages, hoping to see the eclipse, but the moon didn't rise.  It was only after we'd given up and gone to the bridge to looked at the river in flood that the moon suddenly appeared above a bank of cloud.  Just like this, as it was moving out of full eclipse.  Through binoculars it was a magnificent sight.  


The forecast for today was for nor'west gales, possibly severe inland.  They weren't kidding.  It was not a day to hang out the washing, unless you cared to  take a long hike collecting it from the barbed wire fences.

I went out on the exposed bank and tried to take a movie of the wildly tossing trees and the swirling grasses, but the wind gusts were so strong and so sudden that I had trouble remaining upright and I jerked the camera about trying to keep my balance.

My house is on a terrace overlooking a riverine flat where a creek used to flow.  Now a deep hollow meanders off into the distance, crossing several fields.  I was looking out my kitchen window when I saw a very strange sight.  A big cattle feeder emerged from some trees.  It's a round one about 2.5 to 3 metres across and more than a metre deep.  It is made of heavy galvanised iron piping and has iron siding on half its depth.  This huge thing was on its side and rolling.

As I watched it took off out onto the field, paused at an incline and was pushed on by another gust of wind towards the first hollow.  I thought it would stop there, but it clambered out the other side and kept going.  The second dip is shallow and the feeder actually picked up speed.  The last hollow is so deep I can't see cattle standing in it.  The feeder disappeared and I held my breath until it appeared on the other side.  There was a clear run to the fence.  I watched in suspense, wondering what it would do, but a tree got in the way so I didn't see it hit the fence.  Next thing it was hurling along the fence across the wind and it kept going until it reached the corner of the field.  There it came to rest still on its side.

I wonder what the farmer will think when he finds it some 500 metres from where he left it.