Today is Thanksgiving Day, so naturally good day to reflect on all the wonderful blessings in my life. Naturally, thats’ my husband, my kitties, my family, my home, my garden, my health, etc., etc, etc.,

But another thing I’m grateful for is WHERE we live. Long-time readers may recall, that I grew up in the country (from age 4 to 12) Though I lived in cities and large towns for the majority of my life, those eight years made a huge impact on me, and I’ve longed to get back to those country roots.

We aren’t quite there yet. We now live in a VERY small town… one in which a five minute walk in any direction takes me to endless open countryside/forest.

And on Thursday night, I got a HUGE reminder of why I love it so much.

Now “see” might be a bit of a misnomer. Because I couldn’t see what shows in the picture. I could see the pillars on the sky, and movement, but I could barely see the colours. I was in an area that wasn’t quite as dark as I would have liked…. but it sufficed.

You see Monday night, Dave and I went out hunting the lights (I follow a group on Facebook that distills the scientific data and lets people know when/where to look). We found a great spot in the middle of nowhere, though we didn’t get an lights action.

On Thursday, it became very clear that it was going to be an almost 100% chance. But Dave was working and I didn’t want to miss it. He was not comfortable with me going out to our previous place alone (understandable). So I promised to stick closer to home.

I found a place to park just outside the local conservation area (which has an RV Park, and lots of people there until the end of October).

I got there just before sunset, set up my camera, texted Dave my location including pics (it’s a five minute drive from the house) and set into wait. And I didn’t have to wait long.

I spent about 2 hours out there, snapping away, experimenting with different lenses and settings on my camera and just generally having a great time all by myself.

And I learned several things, including that I need to invest in a wide-angled lens. And also that digital camera photography has advanced immensely since my camera came out (2008). I was a little limited because my ISO only went up to 1600, which limits how much light I can let into my camera (and get the bright colours), while trying to keep the pictures sharp.

For instance, my niece was able to get this picture with her iphone, in the middle of her city (with a good amount of light pollution

(My iphone is too old and doesn’t have night mode)

The lights had died out by about nine o’clock, so I headed home. Apparently they put on a better show after 10, and then again after 1 am. But I was already in bed by then.

And apparently the sun is going through a very active cycle right now, so there will be many more chances to capture this amazing natural phenomenon! Now that’s something to be grateful for!