la belle stelle

la bella luna . . at around 8 am the morning after our star gazing.
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we read a little from the chapter about constellations in our book discover nature in winter, and we read a lot from h. a. rey's book find the constellations. the latter is very direct and simple and really helped us find orion's belt, the pleiades, the twins castor and pollux, the big dipper and the great bear, the little dipper and polaris, cassiopeia . . and sirius! i think sirius was somehow our favorite star. maybe because it was so bright, and it's the dog star. i guess we can relate to big dogs. it was exciting to look up and pick out the shining pictures and think of the stories behind them . . i miss the stars in the city . . and i'm a little amused and dismayed that i've never really "seen" the constellations in all my life until now. yes, i've been to the planetarium . . but it isn't the same as looking up at the sky at night! and i have looked at the sky at night (after all, i have been on plenty of camp outs!), but i just never made the connection. i feel a little like helen keller when she finally felt the running water over her hands and connected it with the word, water. it was that way for me when i finally looked up at the twinkling lights and connected orion, sirius, castor, pollux . . sometimes it really takes learning with children to open one's eyes . .