For the people who know these things today's eclipse had been in their diaries for centuries but I only heard about it last night.  So as the day dawned bright and cloudless I was unequipped to take advantage of the fine eclipse viewing conditions.

I risked my sight to cast a few brief screwed up glances heavenward with little success.  I found my ski goggles provided no protection.  I looked at the sun through a bottle of red wine seeing only a Rorschach ink blot that revealed nothing.  I tried the sun's reflection in my dirty window panes but that was too bright.  I poked my camera towards the sky thinking that I could at least get a photo but all I got was an ill defined but very bright blob.

I got very excited when the circle of light cast through the pinhole device that I created had a dark bite taken out of it till I realised this was not the moon but one of those undescended chards made famous in an American vote count some years ago.

So I gave up and watched it on the telly.

However, after it was past its peak and the moon's retreat was underway the sky clouded over and every so often for ten minutes or so as the cloud cover varied there was just the right degree of veiling for me to see the crescent shadow on the sun without going blind.  A result.