Aftermath of Moon Hype

Beautiful but not spectacular.
Maybe I need a new camera. Anyway it gave the boys an excuse to how - oooool.

Lunar Perigee

Tonight's full moon is going to be spectacular, it'll be closer to us on earth than it's been for 18 years. It should provide a chance for us to try out that trick which I wrote about last year.

By chance I found this poem - Facts About The Moon - by Dorianne Laux when I was reading the How A Poem Happens blog this morning. Serendipity, no?!

Bathed in Moonlight

Puzzled by Sunday's large moon, I've been doing some investigating. I'm pursuing this topic on the blog because poets like howling at the moon, I'm pleased to say.

Apparently, the huge moon phenomenon is an optical/psychological illusion: the moon is the same size as usual, but that's not how we perceive it. This accounts for why my camera just kept taking pictures which didn't record what I seemed to be seeing.

Now for the interesting bit. To prove the theory, stand with your back to the outsized moon, with your legs apart. Lean forward and down, and look through the gap between your legs at the moon. What you see should be a normal-sized moon. If you aren't as agile as you used to be, you might also be seeing stars at this point. Go inside, sit down and enjoy a well-earned cup of tea. 

I haven't tried this experiment yet, but I will report back in due course. Please feel free to let me know how you get on!

Mr Moon, Mr Moon

You're out too soon

The sun is in the sky.

Go back to your bed

and cover up your head

and wait till the day goes by.

Pip pip!

Moonstruck

Last night the rising moon was wonderful, hanging in the sky like a huge golden ball. How does it do that?! This morning at 7.40 it was still fantastic - a morning moon against a chilly blue sky as people emerged into the quiet streets. 

I found this image of the moon on a website about the planets, sadly, my camera wasn't up to the task of photographing it. I was tracking its progress on our way back from swimming. Another kilometer, in addition to  one we clocked up on Friday. 

Getting up at 6am was a struggle as usual, but going out into the world was surprisingly easy, despite the darkness and the layer of frost on the car. The UK is bitterly cold again after a milder week. Snow at the weekend, though not as much as last time. And today's swimming was very satisfying - 20 x 50m flashed by without any effort. How come? The longer distance seemed to give me the space to think, without all the constant turning. And sometimes 40 x 25m fits the bill just fine as well, so there you go.

January has been a productive month - I've written one essay, one short story and one poem, a great start to the year!

Hello February! I can hardly believe you're here already!