harvest moon lingering

Last night the moon was full and bright. At 2 a.m. I wandered out to the kitchen to get a glass of water and visible, shining ambient light through window glass of the dark house lit my otherwise dark path. It brought me that familiar comfort of the peace I feel when I see that harvest moon. I stared out the window for a few minutes before heading back to sleep that was at times peaceful and at times filled with odd, realistic dreams of other realities.

The full moon reminds us of cycles. Another cycle comes to completion only to begin its slow fade out to black again. I snapped a photo on my iPhone before I went to bed last night. The moon was only half-way up the sky then, and it just couldn't be captured by that camera. Better to just remember it in my mind's eye. Today is a beautiful, autumn day... not too cool, warming up to nearly 80 degrees later, and then cooling down again. The day is as clear as last night was in mirror image. Savor-time.

Enjoy the best song that comes to mind when I think of the Harvest Moon. Here's Neil Young on WJPP - accompanied by some nice images. Thanks, YouTube.

clair de lune

Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy is one of the loveliest piano pieces of our age. The book I just finished, All the Light We Cannot See, discussed below, features several references to this work, and so I had to post this. Magical. Romantic. Luminescent. Shimmering and shining light of the moon.

beginning to look a lot like . . .

2014

Did anyone else catch the brilliant full moon last night? Wow! During this dark time of year, lights of all kinds are uplifting. This morning, I was up early and sat with my coffee in the dark living room lit up by the lights of the tree, decorated last night. This year's tree is a truly beautiful specimen. We have never chosen a concolor fir before, but we fell in love with this one. The needles are long and soft, and the branches are relatively strong.

Going through the ornaments each year is like meandering through time. We all have our favorites, and some of mine are those that Matt made as a young child through elementary school.

2000 - Toddler Room 

Now that he is 16, he is busier than ever with an ever-growing independent life. He wasn't even able to help pick out the tree this year for the first time...he has a weekend-long training session to become a snowboarding instructor. Consequently, the tree is a bit smaller this year (only 7.5 feet and not quite as wide as the past couple of years). We of course waited to decorate until he could do the job with us, and it is nice having a kid so tall he can put the tree-topper on without even a step stool. And, Star Pillow Santa is at it again, of course.

From elegance to Homer Simpson

On to the day. I should not be sitting here at the computer. I have laundry to do and holiday projects to begin. And all has to be done by 2 p.m. when I will hit the road to pick up my sister and head to a chorale concert. Can't wait. Forgive the latest "diary type" posts. I will get back to writing some poetry soon . . . I hope. Peace!

wolf moon - wolf eyes

Today is the first full moon of the new year, otherwise known as the Wolf Moon. I like wolves... I like their calls. May the year ahead be as beautiful and soulful as a wolf.

I would love to go to the annual Paul Winter's Winter Solstice Concert at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City. I have a blueprint of this cathedral framed in my home. I am not sure why I am so drawn to this place, but I am. Certainly a lot of special music has been performed there over the years.

At the annual Solstice concert, Paul Winter and ensemble perform his song "Wolf Eyes," which features a recording of a real wolf calling out at the beginning, followed by alto saxophone improvisation on the calls. It is a cool piece. At a live performance, a "Howlleluia Chorus" goes wild at the very end -- with all the audience howling away in the dark. It certainly sounds like fun on the live recordings that I have heard. (Here's one.)

The studio recording below is awfully nice too. Enjoy.

star site - star sight

This web site is so cool! Take a tour, and scroll around! I hope you find this as peaceful, relaxing, and INTERESTING as I do!!!

Click on: 100,000  Stars by workshop.chromeexperiments.com. 

"100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood created for the Google Chrome web browser. It shows the location of 119,617 nearby stars, derived from multiple sources, including the 1989 Hipparcos mission. Zooming in reveals 87 individually identified stars and our solar system. The galaxy view is an artist's rendition based on NGC 1232, a spiral galaxy like the Milky way. 

Instructions: Pan using your mouse and zoom in/out using your touchpad or mouse wheel. Click a star's name to learn more about it.
Warning: Scientific accuracy is not guaranteed. Please do not use this visualization to for interstellar navigation."

(Perhaps best on Google Chrome browser... but you can let me know if it works on others...)

h/t to Steve

once in a very blue moon

Did anyone see the moon last night? Hard to believe it wasn't yet 100% full. It was incredibly beautiful on a clear night sky. Tonight marks the actual Blue Moon. I was thinking that this would be a great night for a Blue Moon party - complete with one of my favorite summer beverages.

Musing on the full moon also reminded me of "blue moon songs," and this one, performed by Nanci Griffith, (written by Pat Alger) is particularly sweet. Enjoy, "Once in a Very Blue Moon."

supermoon

Saturday, May 5, 2012, is the date during our current year when the moon will be at its closest to the earth. Just before midnight, the moon will officially be 100% full and will reach its "perigee," a distance of 220, 802 miles away from earth, its closest approach of 2012. You can read all about it, HERE, or take a few minutes and watch this interesting video.

full moon rising in clear starry sky

As I write, just after midnight, the moon is at 99% waxing gibbous in a perfectly clear, starry sky. It is so cool and beautiful outside, I really don't want to sleep. But I must.


The moon, like you, is far away from me, but it’s our sole memento: if you look and recall our past through it, we can be one mind. -- Saigyo

family fun in dc

It has been a while since I've written a "chatty" post, and part of that comes from being busy with work and home, and part of that comes from a conscious shift from the "every day" journal-type blog to more of an emphasis on poetry and music. Every now and then, though, I will try to do an update type post of the more mundane sort.

We just returned from a wonderful family trip to Washington DC with Tom, Matt, my sister Susan, her husband Greg, and kids Jeremy and Elena. We had planned this little vacation during the kids' spring break week, and after a long, cold winter, it was great to get out of Central New York and into warmer and more spring-like temperatures. The first thing I noticed on our arrival Saturday was the flowers!! We spent three and a half adventure filled days of museums, monuments, good food, laughter, and walking. (Lots & lots of walking.) I have today off as a post-trip laundry and catch-up day. Because this is the busiest time of my year at work, I have never taken any time off during this vacation of Matthew's. It was long overdue and definitely worth the pain I'll feel tomorrow and Friday.

During our trip, we were able to spend time with grad school friend Jack and Greg and Susan's niece Carina, who goes to college in the area. We were able to visit several of the Smithsonian museums (Natural History, Air and Space, American History, and American Indian), took a guided tour of the Capitol, paid homage to Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial (at night under a full moon, no less), and visited the eerily moving Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials at night. We walked the Mall and went to the Washington Monument. We spent yesterday at the National Zoo before traveling home and getting in late last night. While the others caught an IMAX movie at Air and Space, Jack and I took a walk through the Botanical Gardens where I photographed a lot of beautiful flowers. It was heavenly there. We all ate lunch at a cool sculpture garden, fountain, and park. All in all, it was a trip of highlights, with so many things standing out.

On a future trip, when the kids are older, I would really like to spend some time at the National Gallery and at the Holocaust Museum -- those were not things they were necessarily ready for. Perhaps the best thing was the time spent comfortably traveling with family. The seven of us piled into Susan and Greg's van, and we are a compatible group. I have so many photos to share, I will have to select just a few for this entry, and will post several more in a couple more entries.

sunny sunday update

It has been a busy couple of weeks, and it appears that spring really is around the corner. The small patches of snow that were fairly prevalent throughout town even a week ago are pretty much gone, as evidenced from the photos at top and bottom taken just about a week apart. The leaves on the pin oak are subtly thinning, as the tree readies itself for new growth in another month or so.

What is new? NCAA Basketball March Madness is here. I am rooting for Syracuse to win it all (like I do every year). One game down, and just a few more to go. Matt's basketball season wrapped up yesterday with his last tournament. He has outgrown his basketball sneakers again, so we will soon be shopping for new ones.

The college had its spring break last week. I took two vacation days (Thursday and Friday) and headed up to Vermont to do some work with our adoption agency (assisting with their orientation, etc.) I love it there in the Green Mountains. The air is fresh and the people are truly salt of the earth. On my drive there, I saw a bald eagle for the first time in my life - flying right past me going in the other direction. It was an incredible sight! (I wrote a "small stone" poem about it.)

On my way home last night, I was able to see the brilliant perigee moon. I hope you were able to see it. It was unbelievably beautiful, and if you did miss it, try to catch it at 99% and waning this evening. I wrote a small stone about that too...

Speaking of small stones, in anticipation of the July 2011 River of Stones month-long challenge, I put together a new blog reserved just for small stones. I don't know how often I will write there, but when I participate in the July project, those posts will all be found at tiny river splash. I have a link to the new blog on the right side bar. I will try to keep this blog more for music, poetry, and every day writing, as I have done for a few years now.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I am really loving this sunshine! Peace!

wolf moon risin'

100% full. That's what the moon phases widget says. I can't see this Wolf Moon from outside my house tonight as clouded skies drop drifting sparkles of snow, but I know it is rising clearly somewhere!

From our good researcher friends at Wikipedia: "The Wolf Moon is a full moon that occurs in January. Its name comes from hungry wolf packs that would howl outside the villages of Native Americans. This full moon is also known as the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule.

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is roughly 29.5 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year."

Beautiful photo found, here.

the waning crescent

the waning crescent
only one percent full --
throws in the towel

you can close your eyes

Just listen to this soothing voice. James Taylor sings the very sound of comfort with some wonderful harmonies accompanying him on this old favorite lullaby, "You Can Close Your Eyes."

It has been a long week, and a long Saturday. I'd like to close my eyes, but it is only 8:49 p.m., and Matt has a friend sleeping over. They promised me they'd go to sleep by 11 p.m., because Matt has a travel team practice tomorrow afternoon. He had a good game this morning, and we enjoyed watching Syracuse beat DePaul in a nail biter this afternoon, bringing them to 21-1 . . . quite exciting!

The weather here has been bitterly cold for several days, and the snap is supposed to last for several more. I just checked the temp and it is -5 (feels like -17 degrees with wind chill). Yikes. I'm glad we're in for the night.

Did you catch the beautiful full moon we had last night? WOW! The sky was bright and clear, and the moon looked huge! I thought it was a nice way to head into a busy weekend.

Well, I feel like I'm rambling. I think I *am* rambling. I think I may go close my eyes . . .

full wolf moon

From The Farmer's Almanac:

"Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac's list of the full Moon names.

Full Wolf Moon - January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January's full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon."

Be sure to look outside tonight if the sky is clear. Few things are more beautiful than the sky on a clear full moon night. It is lightly snowing now, and is forecast to do so all day and tomorrow, so I'm very glad I had a chance to look out late last night. The memory of the snow and trees illuminated by the moon - even if only at 99 % full - will stay with me, at least until the next full moon.

*See the comments for the update on this moon: A Blue Moon!

early december full moon

it seemed to move

behind one tree, then another

as we circled the cul-de-sac route

in the morning dark

with heavy frost all around

and frozen breath visible

as we passed under the street lanterns

it was a bright, full moon

in a clear December sky

illuminating tree branches and rooftops

until gradually

as we rounded the third pass of the loop

the sky began to lighten

with the sun's subtle rise

the moon, still full, still visible, yet fading

into the pink-streaked baby blue sky

(by Nan P. ©2009)

harvest moon rising

When I looked at my moon phases gadget early this morning, I saw that the moon was going to be 100% full tonight. Then I realized that this is the full moon rising closest to the autumnal equinox . . . it is our harvest moon! So I knew I'd be blogging one of my favorite old songs today, by Neil Young (linked below). I went searching for an image to go along with the post, and found this great photo at blogs.phillyburbs.com. Perfect, isn't it? I was not surprised to see that my friend Alison over at lovely little moony night posted on this very subject yesterday also -- with some photography tips.

I hope you have five minutes or so to listen to this excellent song. It is incredibly sweet and romantic. This is Neil in 2000, still sounding great. While I miss the cool guitar harmonics at the beginning of the song from the original recording, there is something that has deepened in Neil's guitar work over the years, and I enjoyed this very much. Click the link, for Harvest Moon.

. . . Because I'm still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I'm still in love with you
On this harvest moon. . . .

mambo de la luna - kirsty maccoll

It is nearly a full moon, and it's time for some Kirsty MacColl. Click the link below for Mambo de la Luna, off her excellent 2000 CD, Tropical Brainstorm. (The video isn't the highest quality, but the sound is okay.)

Mambo de la Luna

Kirsty was a great talent, hailing from England, and influenced in her later work by Cuban and other Latin American music, as evidenced on Tropical Brainstorm. She met an untimely death in a tragic accident off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico in December 2000, while on holiday with her sons -- just months after the critical acclaim of her latest album.

Do check out a few more songs on the CD, and perhaps you'll want to go out and get it. Some of my favorites are England 2 Colombia 0, and In These Shoes? She is clever and entertaining, and underneath a facade of humor, there is a great depth of feeling in this pseudo-pop music. This is a great album to listen to under the light of the full moon.

Misquamicut Beach, a full moon, and babies!!!

We had a good trip to R.I. on Friday. There's nothing like a long weekend to refresh the soul! We met friends Mike and Dawn, Dave and Liz, and Anita, Brendan and Maija. Each year this group of old college friends travels from four directions to meet up somewhere, and this year it was the R.I. coast. I tried to blog from my blackberry, but I didn't quite figure it out -- and the wireless internet at our inn wasn't configured properly so I wasn't able to write from there. Probably just as well! Travel took us about 6 hours with just one brief lunch stop each way, and we got home this evening around 6 p.m.

While we were away, four babies were born to folks close to us! Today, we got the good news on the ride home that Lily Grace Mirabelli was born this afternoon to Kelly and Ralph. I am checking on the spelling of Lily, but I think I have it correct. In all the excitement, I couldn't be 100% sure. It is a special feeling to become an aunt once again. Word has it that all are doing really well and Lily has a lot of black hair and weighed in at 7 lbs 9 oz , measuring 20 inches long. Big sister Mia (2 years old) is very excited. On Friday, Karleigh Jean Livingston was born-- daughter of Kevin and granddaughter of Tom's first cousin Jean Marie Livingston. On Saturday, our friends Amanda and Ryan Coyle delivered their twins -- daughter Aubrey Madison and son Landon Emerson Coyle. All this baby news is quite unbelievable! Yes, it is a full moon.!

Anyway, let me tell you a little bit about our spot in R.I. at Misquamicut Beach. We stayed at the Pleasant View Inn, right on the ocean, up on a rocky embankment about 30 feet above the beach. I enjoyed sitting on the lawn in front of the rocks, seeing and hearing the waves rhythmically crashing to the shore. It was beautiful, and I just loved the smell of the ocean air. The towns nearby Misquamicut Beach -- Westerly and Watch Hill -- are probably not much changed from the 1940s . . . Just updated a bit. It was clean and not crowded. Just what I needed on a bit of time off. I would even say that it was unchanged since the '20s, if it weren't for the great hurricane of 1938 that wiped out many homes, hotels, and many lost their lives. Apparently after that, land went up for sale like crazy. No doubt it was a horrific storm. It was rebuilt, and the R.I. shore remains a lovely place to visit. I hope to return some time.

On Saturday, Tom and Matt golfed with friends Dave and Brendan. I did some reading and beach-time. Matt swam in the cold ocean each day we were there - including some major body surfing on Saturday afternoon. I swam in the ocean on Saturday also, and on the days I didn't swim, I walked the beach and got my feet wet. It was great. The inn where we stayed also had a heated swimming pool, and our little fish Matt enjoyed that each day also. On Saturday and Sunday we went to the Watch Hill carousel. On Sunday, we took a trip over to the Mystic, CT Aquarium with Brendan, Anita, and their daughter Maija. Each evening involved a fun dinner - and lots of fresh seafood.

I am sprinkling in some photos, and I'll try to blog more later. I hope you had a nice weekend!