{"id":1847,"date":"2023-11-22T10:18:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T10:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1847"},"modified":"2023-11-22T10:18:33","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T10:18:33","slug":"bright-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/bright-nights\/1847\/","title":{"rendered":"Bright Nights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Bright-Nights.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1848\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Bright-Nights.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Bright-Nights.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Bright-Nights.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Bright-Nights.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I am feeling like a pupa, all wrapped up in blankets inside a sleeping bag, a thick furry hat and all to watch the fireworks. At ninety, my granddaughter Lucy is taking no chances with me.&nbsp;It&#8217;s years since I last saw a display, but feeling the raw air around me fills me with joy. Living in a home after my husband passed away, means I never get out in the chilly weather,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m sitting above the playing fields in a lay-by and the fun is about to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My word\u00a0what\u00a0a show &#8211; loads of flash-bangs, crackling, starbursts, so different from anything I&#8217;ve seen before. Lucy tells me they are not called fireworks now but pyrotechnics, whatever they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>As the smoke rises, pulling a veil over the events, still the occasional firework&nbsp;is going off around the town. Turning to Lucy, I explain that as children we would come up here for a picnic&nbsp;with our jam sandwiches and bottles of water. In winter we had our biscuit tin lids to slide down in the snow. Her granddad and I&nbsp;did our courting up here as well, away from prying eyes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gazing around, I notice the sky on the horizon slowly changes colour to a faint purple. Holding my breath, I see it undulate, rising up, followed by spring green. The colours dance\u00a0across the heavens to their own special\u00a0tune. I can&#8217;t believe that what I&#8217;m seeing is the Northern\u00a0Lights. We look at each other,\u00a0both of us with tears in our eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Lucy, that&#8217;s your granddad letting us know he is watching over us. If I died tomorrow, I would die happy. What a night!&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I undo the sleeping bag and we fall into each other&#8217;s arms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My word\u00a0what\u00a0a show &#8211; loads of flash-bangs, crackling, starbursts, so different from anything I&#8217;ve seen before. Lucy tells me they are not called fireworks now but pyrotechnics, whatever they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,1026],"tags":[1058,1059],"class_list":["post-1847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-nov-2023-fireworks","tag-bright","tag-nights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-tN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1849,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions\/1849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}