Some

It's been cloudy for the past week and a half...we even got some tiny smidgens of rain here and there.  The clouds did let me have a brief glimpse of the moon, happily, before they covered her up again.  I was hoping the clouds would really pour down rain up here, especially on the Lake Fire, which is still burning, but no such luck.  Ah well, "Alcuni sono meglio di niente" (some is better than none), as my Italian Nonna used to say.

February's Snow Moon

Here in Southern California it would be more accurate to call this moon "Killing Drought Goes On Moon."  Northern California is supposed to get quite a bit of rain, up to 10 inches (yay!), and some rain is supposed to fall as far south as Santa Barbara...but none south of that.  140 miles - that's how far Santa Barbara is from here, such a short distance by California standards. I can drive there in just over three hours, less if traffic is light.  If only the winds would cooperate and push those life-laden clouds 140 miles further south...

November's Full Moon

It rained lightly all last night and part of this morning.  We had "tree rain" for the rest of the day.  I'm grateful for every drop! 

I went outside not expecting to be able to see the moon, but the clouds were moving pretty briskly, so I waited a bit and got lucky.  My Oglala Sioux ancestors called November's full moon "Last Leaves Falling Moon."  You can find dozens of websites purporting to know the names that the tribes of the First People called the moons, but I find that very few match exactly what my Sioux and Cherokee grandparents and parents told me.  I'd tell you the Cherokee name, but I can't remember it right now.  Darn memory.

Last Night's Full Moon

The Almost Full Moon of July

She looked very ominous as she rose above the thick clouds of smoke from the huge, 23,000 acre fire burning in the San Jacinto mountain range in Riverside county.  I can't remember seeing a moon this color before; is this what is meant by the saying "blood on the moon?"  Over 6,000 people have been evacuated and the fire is only 25% contained.  The cause wasn't lightening, but human.  It has yet to be determined if it was arson or accidental. 

We got a tiny smidgen of rain today.  It lasted for about 60 or 90 seconds, as if someone took a giant plant mister and waved it back and forth above us.  There have been a few little spot fires that were started by lightening in the mountain range I live in, but our fire fighters wasted no time in bringing in the water dropping air tankers and fire retardant bombers.  Most of the little fires are out, the others have lines of fire retardant around them and fire fighters will be watching them throughout the night to make sure they don't escape those lines.  Everyone is dreading later in the fire season when the Santa Ana winds will come.  Just a few years ago fire season started in the middle of September and ended in mid-November.  Maybe we'll get early, heavy rains in October...it used to happen regularly.  We've even gotten several feet of snow by mid-October.   Cross your fingers for us....

A Faeries Friday Full Moon in May

I thought She looked especially magical tonight.  I am always intrigued by the lighter, brighter spots on Her and, even though I know the scientific explanation for them, I choose to ignore it.  I like my great-great grandniece's explanation: "They're the lights from the villages of the Moon Faeries, of course!"   Emma is going on 10 and I worry that her wonderful imagination will be submerged under peer pressure soon.  Maybe I shouldn't worry though...just last week she told me that she felt so sorry for kids who were starting to lose their belief in magic, or never believed in it at all.  Like me, Emma finds magic in the most mundane things, she finds the wonder in all that the Great Spirit created, so maybe I'm worrying for no reason.  Unfortunately, worrying is one of the things I do best; I'm so happy that Emma didn't inherit that trait!

Full Moon in March

Well, technically, I suppose it was only 99% of full since I took this last night.  I was afraid it would be cloudy tonight.  The wind was blowing really hard, like it always is in this spot and it was SO cold!  Even though it's been in the mid-fifties in the day it still gets down close to the freezing point at night.  I don't know why the moon is oddly shaped and has some rays around her, I wasn't using a filter.  It's been so dry here maybe there is a lot of dust in the air...but whatever caused it, I like the effect.

A Blue Moon

The second full moon of August, according to the moon gadget on my sidebar, is full tonight.  The calendar I have says it won't be full until tomorrow, but She looked pretty full to me so...here She is in all her blue glory.  (She wasn't really blue; I had to give that a little 'help'). 

I call the moon Grandmother because that is what my First Nations ancestors called her.  Mother Earth, Father Sky, Grandmother Moon, Grandfather Sun: humans, and all living beings, are connected as family through these four. 

July Full Moon

Everything is nice and calm tonight (touch wood), but it won't be that way tomorrow night...sigh.

Perigee Moon

I had a terrible time getting a photo of tonight's moon.  I wanted a photo of it rising over the lake, barely clearing the trees, but I foolishly listened to the scientists about the time she would make her arrival.  When I got down to the lake, she was well above the trees. 

My camera was behaving very badly, too.  It would do ok in the close-ups, but I could NOT get it to focus when I tried to get the moon and her path on the water.  I had my DSLR with me, but I didn't have the tripod with me, and it's just too heavy for me to hold and get any kind of a decent shot. 

Oh well....

March Moon

I've been taking advantage of the energy surge that the waxing moon usually provides for me by cleaning out winter's debris from the garden.  It's a good thing I got this picture earlier, as She is completely obscured by clouds now. 

It has been quite nice for the past several days with temperatures in the low 60's F, but snow is predicted for tonight and tomorrow.   It will be welcome; even though we've had what seems like a lot of rain and snow this past winter, what we've gotten so far hasn't been enough to end our drought. 

La Luna

La Luna a little over a week ago

And tonight...La Luna in her full glory. There wasn't any haze

in the air when I took the first photo, but tonight is pretty hazy due to the smoke from the big fire near Los Angeles.
But whether she is seen through clear or hazy air, I think La Luna is always beautiful.
When I was a very little girl, I used to think that the moon sparkles on the lake would hold me up if I could just manage to step on them in exactly the right way. I had a rule, though, that if the first step onto a sparkle didn't hold me up there was no use in going further; the magic just wasn't going to work that night. Thank goodness there was one part of my mind that had a tiny shred of practicality!