Derbyshire 86 - Chesterfield /768 hours /what is the connection between hairdressers, barbers and SpaceX Starlink?

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"The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough" Rabindranath Tagore - one of my favourites. I saw the first butterfly of the season today . A Cabbage White - the scourge of gardeners who love their cabbages . The pretty white things lays so many eggs on the leaves that the cabbages are beyond redemption. My walk today would be the other way round the allotments. Before leaving whilst pondering where to go and how long it would take I came up with an hour to walk the reverse route which would be uphill most of the way . I would be back by 8.05 I thought . Watches synchronised it time to set off . Across the park . An ambulance was parked up outside a bungalow . I wondered if Covid 19 had arrived in our village or was it just an accident in the home that had brought the ambulance here so early in the morning. I walked behind an aged hippy in his crimson palazzo pants . He did not look at me . He walked by me without a second glance .

Out in the countryside it was time to be somewhere else . My gran loved walking . She walked me for miles when I was a child . Enthralled me with tales of her family , of growing up in Victorian Britain , the First World War and living through the Second . She used to go to bed at night and say a prayer that she would have a good nights sleep and wake up in the morning . When she woke she gave up another thankyou for a safe passage through the night . She taught me the names of flowers. Today the Celandines have died off and are replaced by bright yellow Dandelions . The White Wood Anemone are going over and instead I see the Stitchwort climbing its way through the nettles . Jack by the Hedge growing upright through all of them. Spring has blossomed and the season is slowly but surely moving toward early Summer. 768 hours of being lockdown and not being able to travel .

I reached Pearce Lane and bade a good morning to a couple walking their dog . The sheltered lane had encouraged the Queen Annes Lace to bloom early. From here on it is uphill all the way. I stopped at the laybye to talk at a distance to an elderly man . On his own he told me he was nipping into the wood for a quiet walk and a smoke, . He encouraged me to continue on my uphill trek giving me instructions on how to breathe properly when walking uphill. Leaving my new found friend I reached the allotments . Today three cars were parked up . Three sets of allotment owners were digging their plots, tending their vegetables and wheelbarrowing soil across the plots . It was a peaceful scene .

By the time I reached the main road I had found another walk to do on another day . I just had to get home now ready for that coffee. The last mile or so was taken up with other thoughts about Denmark - after two weeks we would have seen the Viking ships, walked around Copenhagen, travelled to Hamlets castle and wandered round streets known to Hans Christian Andersson . We would have visited the home of Carlsberg Lager and probably paid a fortune to drive over the Oresund Bridge . Our next stop would be Poland . I arrived home at 8.01.

So what was the connection between hairdressers /barbers and Space X. Absolutely none . They were just random things that we did yesterday and talked about for a lot longer . How long would it be before Glenn needed a barber ? We reckoned five weeks . On holiday he would find a local barber easily . Whatever hair cut he got would last and would grow out quickly . Would I be able to cut it for him? We found out yesterday . Scissors in hand I chopped away at it . Yes I think I could keep it in trim if we spent months in Greece. Hairdressers different story . My haircut lasts 8 weeks and drags out to 10 or 12 if I am lucky . A womans relationship with a hairdresser is different . They are a confidante,. a friend , they share laughter and sadness with you. You develop a relationship that can last a lifetime . What about Space X? At 9.50 I was out last night watching the night sky . In search of Elon Musks Skytrain which was passing over Earth at precisely 9.58pm. It was a quiet night. The sky was clear . I could see the Plough and the North Star. What I was looking for was a satellite constellation being constructed by American company SpaceX to provide satellite Internet access. The constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit working in combination with ground transceivers. I had seen the International Space Station a few years passing over so I was not going to miss the opportunity of seeing Skytrain passing by. Did I see it? I am not sure . I looked to the west where it was expected and watched something move silently and very brightly across the sky in an easterly direction . It is coming around again tomorrow . Perhaps I shall go out again and stand with my own thoughts watching this amazing thing passing overhead . Lockdown is not so bad after all.

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