Binocular session, forgotten site!

[Charic]

M81 Bodes, M82 Cigar, M42 Orion  all clearly visible tonight? M45 Pleiades looks stunning,  Milky Way much brighter than normal, absorbing  Cassiopeia, whereas  Cassiopeia normally stands out alone, with just a faint hint of the Milky way behind it (  seen from my garden ) and  M31 Andromeda,  neck breakingly overhead at the time of observation, all observed using my 15x70 Revelation binoculars tonight! I really wanted to test/was hoping to test my new  binoculars tonight, my reason for going out, but that will have to wait for a while, while I consider an issue, more on this at a later date? 

Anyhow, no mean feat you may quip, seeing the Messiers listed above, but to be honest, their almost impossible to see from my garden due to the street lighting ( I have some serious street lights to contend with ) . I have been ducking and diving for a long time now, trying to find the best spot in my garden, but never completely away from the light, plus hiding in the natural shadows of my garden will better assist my eyes to become dark adapted.
I have no proper  ground  horizon, just a line of trees, at least 50 foot high,   running a line East to West, and when looking North, 5 street/car park lights, with their  intense orange glow affecting my vision, yet my neighbour's  ( to my East)  are less affected by these lights ( envy! ) so how on Earth did I forget the clearing just the other-side of the tree line? not more than 200 feet away, the footy pitch! setup for the kids of the street  back in 1997 (my kids too)  with no street lighting to  contend/affect, dog poo free! (or just lucky tonight?- folk walk their dogs there ) and  much much darker skies compared to this side of the tree line, crikey, its dark! what a waste of time I've spent in my back yard, when this patch of grass ( council  maintained ) and tree lined, is so conveniently close. I`ll just need soft tyres on a trolley to get my scope there, should be amazing, infact it appeared darker than some of my regular dark sites?  what a joy, the  perfect observation site, a stones throw away. It just goes to show, the importance of getting away from any  light pollution.
I still have various  sites some distance from the house, by car, where I can be miles from the nearest man-made light, but we all know the  issues,  effort,  timing, weather,  transportation , the list goes on!
Seems like my interest has been re-kindled tonight,  with  the availability of my new, yet forgotten site,  even  if its just with  a chair for the next meteor shower, it has to better my garden views,   although my flame was never completely doused, just in check,  due to the  long Summer nights of twilight, and what seems to have been constant cloud cover this Year! 

Shame about the new binoculars, I may have to get them exchanged, I've fired off an email, let's see what the outcome is before I comment  any further.