According to the Chinese Zodiac, this is the New Year of the Dragon. In Chinese mythology, dragons are generally regarded more benevolently than in western folklore, symbolising among other things, power, luck and success, and in Chinese astrology 2024 is forecast to bring opportunities, changes and challenges.
With elections in the UK and USA this year, and the on-going wars in Ukraine and Gaza, which have the potential to expand dangerously, changes and challenges surely lie ahead. Hopefully in this Dragon Year we can adjust to changes, overcome challenges, and find opportunities to solve the problems of our world.
Speaking of dragons, I did see something unusual in the heavens recently. One afternoon, I noticed our little dog was staring intently out of the window. I thought a buzzard or gull had caught her attention but on looking upwards I was surprised to see a shining, sail-shaped object in the clear blue sky, reflecting the low winter sun. It was stationary and though difficult to judge, it didn’t seem to be very large or far away. Curiosity piqued, I grabbed my phone to take a shot but when I glanced up again it had changed position, flipped over 90°, so it now appeared oval-shaped with two circular details inset.
I called my husband to come and see the ‘UFO’, adjusted the phone camera settings, looked up and found the mystery object had vanished. Unfortunately my husband had missed it, so I had neither witness nor photo.
After my initial excitement and maybe some unease at this evidence of alien visitors, I researched online and discovered that there were one or two businesses in the area which employed drones for aerial photography. The VTOL (vertical take off and landing) delta wing type of drone perhaps explains the mystery of the silvery wing in the sky.
Medieval cartographers were said to have illustrated their maps with dragons or inscribed ‘here be dragons’ on unexplored areas of the world as a warning to the unwary. Perhaps drones are our modern day dragons in the sky and we should be more cautious of them.
Retromode 