Page 55 of Starry Nights over Dragonfly Lake

‘Titan,’ came the shout from further down the veranda.

‘Well done!’ she said, nodding her approval. ‘Titan is in transit this month, working its way across the globe. Can you see it? Even with binoculars you should be able to spot it. Andits rings as well.’

After the planet spotting, she moved on to the constellations as well as the moon itself, full and bright in the sky that night.

After ninety minutes had flown past, she asked if anyone had any questions.

‘What about Mars?’ a man asked. ‘Can we ever see that?’

‘You’ll have to get up early to spot it at the moment,’ she told him. ‘Probably from about 4a.m. is the best time to see it. It doesn’t start rising until 1a.m. so if you’re an insomniac you’re in for a treat! Oh, and next month it’s in close conjunction with Jupiter so keep an eye out.’

Beth heard a movement nearby and turned her head to see Lily slipping out through the glass doors to join them.

‘What about meteor showers?’ asked someone else.

‘We’ve missed the Orionid meteor shower this year, I’m afraid,’ she replied. ‘That peaked ten days ago. Did you know that it’s due to debris left by Halley’s comet streaking across the sky? Isn’t that wonderful? However, you’ve still got time to see the Leonids. That’s next month and one of the most prolific annual meteor showers over a couple of nights. It’s got fantastically fast and bright meteors which can be seen with the naked eye.’

There was a murmur of approval around the veranda.

‘And will you be able to talk us through that next month?’ asked a lady standing nearby.

Beth was temporarily lost for words. She hadn’t really thought beyond that evening or considered anyone would want to hear from her again.

‘Absolutely,’ said Lily in a brisk tone accompanied by a bright smile. ‘We’ll have all the details on our website but yes, we will be running special stargazing meteor events for those nights.’

Everyone looked pleased and as Lily invited them all into the bar to warm up, Beth was pleased that everyone thanking herwas also saying that they had enjoyed themselves and would be back to see the meteor showers.

Once they were finally alone on the balcony, Beth looked at Noah before sagging against the balustrade.

But still she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. She had enjoyed sharing her passion for the stars, something which she had never experienced face to face before that evening. She knew that her magazine column and blog had great feedback and yet to pass on that knowledge in front of a crowd of interested faces was something entirely new. She loved interacting with people and it had been a great experience.

‘Well, this is all your fault,’ she told him.

‘It usually is,’ he replied. ‘Looks like you might have that new job you’ve been searching for.’

‘Maybe I have. I suppose I’d better buy you a drink to say thank you,’ she replied, holding the door open for him.

As she followed Noah inside, Beth took one last look at the night sky and couldn’t stop herself from smiling with pride at a successful evening, as well as excitement too at what the future might hold for her.

29

The first fortnight of November brought endless days of grey skies and rain.

‘At least it’s not cold yet,’ Ben said to Noah as they both grappled with a large oak window frame, trying to put it in place from inside the lodge.

Despite the bad weather, Noah had liked working on the lodges so far. He was using completely different skills to his boatmaking but it was enjoyable.

Together, he and Ben had built and erected the frames for each of the four lodges. Cutting and then placing the heavy timber logs horizontally around the frames to form the outside of each lodge had been exhausting and physically demanding work, even when Alex had been called in for extra muscle.

But it was worth the aches and pains each night to see the lodges gradually rise up from their concrete platforms to become individual small buildings.

Now that each lodge had its main structure in place, they had decided to concentrate work on the first lodge, the one set back alittle from the others further into the forest, although it still had that great view of the lake beyond.

Once the windows and front door were in place, it would only require the roof tiles to make the lodge weatherproof going into the winter months.

‘When do the roof tiles arrive?’ asked Walter, who was sitting nearby on a camping chair inside the lodge and watching the progress.

Although he professed to be in less pain, he still winced every once in a while when he was inclined to over-gesticulate even with his sling on and forget that he’d broken his collarbone in the first place.