International Space Station and my Spinning retreat coincided at Launde Abbey last week. It was a lovely time – three days spinning and relaxing with people who love what I love.
Launde is a magical place. The monastics knew a thing or two 900 years ago when they chose the location in which to build a home for their community. It is a place that transcends the commonplace. Where one can do ordinary things (like spinning, eating, sleeping, praying or simply just ‘being’) but with extraordinary attention.
We didn’t know it at the time, but on Thursday night we were not the only ones paying extraordinary attention… Local astronomer, J Brown was carefully capturing time, place and space on film.
And at the same time we spinners were keeping watchful eyes on the suspicious men in white vans who were pointing their cameras at us…
John Brown gave this report the following morning;
‘I took this photo (should really be photos as it is a total of 325 photos stacked into one to get the effect) last night. It shows how the earth rotates,the bright line coming down in the middle was the International space station passing over Launde at 12:03.
This is only web size low resolution if you wanted a full image suitable for printing then let me know.’ J Brown. Launde.Launde
Maybe we spinners were more earthbound than we thought!