Moon shadow

Before I forget the moment entirely, let me record a thrilling moment from last week, on the night of the last full moon.

I returned home about seven in the evening. It was, unusually for the city, a silvery darkness. The usual urban backlighting of leached orange was strangely absent. It was a particularly clear night, and the moon must have been close.

As I stepped into the kitchen, lights still off, I could see it was illuminated. The windows were casting great milky boxes of light across table and floor. Though I knew it was the moonlight, the brilliance of it was so unexpected that I forced myself to check that none of the neighbours had installed spotlighting out in the back. There was nothing but the moon.

Then I sat on the kitchen step for a while and drank it in. It was gloriously like not being in London.