On a day like today, it’s wonderful to be living in North Queensland. My only regret is that we didn’t make the pilgrimage to Cairns to witness the full solar eclipse, which was truly amazing. What astounds me is the power of the sun. Only a sliver of it is required to light our Earth. We didn’t have anything special to view the eclipse from Townsville but what we did see was wonderful.

The light was ‘odd’, like late afternoon in the morning. As we reached our maximum sun coverage, the temperature dropped several degrees and it was really pleasant outside. But the most spectacular thing was the hundreds of sun crescent images reflected onto the shadecloth of our outdoor area.

This morning is a timely reminder of just how powerful our sun is and how critical it is to our everyday life. It governs the temperature of our world, the seasons and life on this planet. You just have to stop and think how lucky we all are to be alive today.