The Cloud Moon

The full moon of February 9, 2009, photographed through a haze of clouds at Casa LoupasThe February full moon was last night. As you can see, the February stargazing score is now clouds two, Elizabeth zero—all I saw was a fuzzy-looking disk (no, that’s not the camera, it’s the clouds) high over the gables of our house. This full moon is usually called the Snow Moon or Hunger Moon. Colonial Americans called it the Trapper’s Moon and in medieval England it was sometimes called the Storm Moon. The Chinese refer to it as the Budding Moon (and some of our trees are already budding—it’s in the seventies today, although we’re under a tornado watch at the moment) and the Celts called it the Ice Moon. This year I’m calling it the Cloud Moon!


4 Responses to “The Cloud Moon”

  • Dana Says:

    I love the expression ‘Hunger Moon.’ I wonder if someone has used that title for a horror novel yet…if not…I’m gonna grab it!

  • elizabeth Says:

    I looked it up on Amazon and there were only a couple of really old books, neither one of which seemed to be horror. So go for it!

  • otherlisa Says:

    How weird – the moon in Beijing looked exactly like that when I arrived on Feb. 10!

  • elizabeth Says:

    That’s what I love about stargazing! You can look up at the moon and stars and imagine all the other people seeing the same thing at (more or less) the same moment.

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