Walking back to the house at night, finished with work and ready to rest, is always a special time for me. I stop by the heifer yard, look up at the stars or across the valley to the town lights and just unwind, dial down, reflect and get ready for the end of the day.

Last night the moon was dark and it should have been a good time to gaze at Orion making his endless quest across the winter sky. Sadly, I could barely make out the stars in his belt. Smoggy air and light from those same towns diminished the night's starlight almost into oblivion.

I remembered decades ago before farm and cows, camping at Tirrell Pond, which is actually a gorgeous lake in the Adirondack Mountains. We spent the evening hours standing (on the beach that you see in the picture at the site above), looking up at the whole Milky Way Galaxy sprawled across the sky in glorious abandon. You could pick out tiny stars so far away that they were no more than specks of sky dust. It was worth hiking in October and camping cold to see such a sight mirrored in the glassy little lake. Then today I saw this story on the Associated Press that told me what I already knew.

If you live in the city, or even near it you miss a lot.