Check the weather. If you have clear skies tomorrow morning I suggest you get up in the waning darkness before dawn and find a clear view of the east horizon. A slender crescent moon will stand low with radiant Venus, the beautiful ‘Morning Star,’ and Mars. All will be grouped amid the faint stars of Aries.

The crescent moon, rising with slow majesty in the fading twilight, framed against a horizon that offers us human scale by way of contrast – for me it’s the treeline along Foster’s Branch Creek (mostly Poplar) and Mr Norford’s pastures with that long, long winding fence along the road I walk – offers a deep and abiding affirmation. This is a good way to start a day. 18 June