A Month of the Moon

I said for a book I am doing that I would pay more attention to the moon for a month.... So this post is my documentation of the moon for a lunar month...

It was new on the 18th. I hadn't really been out at night so I didn't spot it until....

24th - The moon was a quarter sitting high in the sky as we came home from Fat Fighters. The sun had just set, turning the blue sky a whole range of colours and dusting the belly of the little powder puff clouds in the sky. Away from the sunset in the darker sky, the moon sat and watched all going on beneath it. The moon had risen, unseen at 2.08 pm so by 8pm it was pretty high. I think it would be lovely to watch a full moon rise one day...

I have just been looking online at the times of the lunar rise on full moons and it seems I will not see one this year because it is rising too early.... Maybe next year....

25th - It was there again as we drove out. Hanging half full in a clear sky that was still light. When we came to leave it had clouded over and the only sign of the moon was a glow in the clouds. The clouds stopped the light vanishing into space and yo could identify the towns, even those hidden by distant hills by the orange glows on the underside of clouds. It was very clear and we realised we could see all the way to Penzance and Mousehole.

26th - saw the moon half full in the day sky again. Forgot to look for it later (probably the red wine!)

30th - As I climb the stairs to go to bed I feel the light of the moon wash over me. We have a very big window at the top of our stairs making our landing one of the few bits that gets lots of lovely light, despite our huge sash windows as they point the wrong way... It was lovely and growing and I remembered I had seen it a night or two ago briefly. I couldn't see the face but the two children that the Scandinavians see were right there.

1st - We had to go for a drive but the moon was too high in the sky to do anything more than catch a glimpse of it. The face was clear tonight and as we drove the moon scudded between fluffy clouds, getting fuller and brighter. We got home and F grabbed his camera so we could go find a hill and photograph it. Typically the clouds decided to take that moment and hide it. The moon vanished with it's only trace some nice bright clouds.

10th - The moon has been hiding behind clouds this week. Last night I woke in the middle of the night and went downstairs to get a drink. On my way back up the stairs. I could see it shining. A perfect half. Then it vanished again. It came back but it's brightness varied a lot. Little clouds skidding by, sometimes just wisps, but sometimes more substansial.

This week the moon has slowly been rising closer and closer to the time I get up. Each morning I have seen it hanging in the dark sky outside my landing window as I get up to go to work. Each day it has become smaller and smaller. Friday I got up later and I could not find it. The sky was light, the moon shrunken to nearly nothing as well as the likelihood it might be hiding behind the large tree. Tomorrow morning the moon will be made new.

I like this cataloguing of the moons movements. The stopping to take time to seek her out.