November 2024 – End of season
The last action for the 2024 season was the cutting back of the wild meadow and gathering seeds for replanting in the Spring. The pictures at the top of the blog are by Julie McDonald, conservation worker with the Transitions team who did the cutting back herself. Unfortunately I missed that day but, from one of the pictures, it seems clear that the job wasn’t over-mechanised. It’s been great to watch all the growing, flowering and going to seed stages of the wildflower area and my hope is that this will become a more significant part of the whole Twin Dome landscape over the years.
Coming more up-to-date, there’s currently a situation at the Twin Dome which I’m recognising from recent past years – the going into its winter hibernation. Since bringing the building back from near uselessness (no more than a kind of an attic for the observatory) it’s remained off-grid without light and heat. The new window fixed the lack of light issue when the sun is up but there’s no getting away from the dome becoming a fridge in the winter. It’s not an easy place to work at this time but needs must because now the planning begins again for what we hope to do in 2025.
The first event of the new year will be on Saturday March the 15th and this will be our annual Open Night event. Beyond The Horizon is still in place (our last installation of 2024) and the likelihood is that all or some of that will still be there for Open Night but now as an installation lit at night rather then surrounded by daylight. It will be a very dramatically altered state of the universe.