The View from Middle Spunk Creek
Progress Happens
The image, below, is the site of last week’s blog post, “Chasing the Moon.” It is the location of the home of a good friend of Rob’s and a friend of mine as well, a girl that we both pursued to no avail. She read us like a book, played us like a fiddle, and dumped us like a bad habit.
The house she grew up in was razed years ago. The barn and tool shed were not. The barn collapsed within the last decade but the shed and windmill remain. Although the house was modest, there was an air of simple elegance to it as it sat on a knoll at the end of a curved driveway guarded by a huge white pine tree.
A stately sentinel at the entrance to the property, the tree still stands, holding secret the stories of rural American life as it existed on the prairies six decades ago. As the years go by there are fewer and fewer of these “places where memories were made” on the prairies surrounding Middle Spunk Creek.
Places that made up our youthful “run” have nearly all disappeared. Small farms, and the good shepherds that tended them, are becoming extinct. Friend’s homes, our outdoor meeting spots, and the lover’s lanes of our youth have been transformed into a few more acres of tillable land. Fences are obsolete, and therefore removed to add a couple more rows of crop land, every bit needed for today’s farmers to feed and fuel the world’s population and to secure a prosperous bottom line for farmers and their families.
The removal of fences and the weeds that grew along them, has resulted in the elimination of the habitat for a multitude of critters including grasshoppers, butterflies, and bees, as well as the bobwhite quail, meadowlarks and bluebirds that fence rows once hosted. This is all very logical, and a natural occurrence in the name of progress, I suppose. But to the quail, bluebirds, meadowlarks, and to me, it doesn’t feel like progress at all.
Super Wolf Blood Moon
In last week’s post I relayed the story behind the capture of the photographs entitled “Chasing the Moon”. The photographs used in the post were taken the evening of January 20, 2019 at 6:29, 6:30, and 6:31. The three photos were posted on my Facebook page and were a big hit, garnering hundreds of reactions, comments, and shares.
The full moon in January is called the “Wolf Moon” said to be named so by Native Americans as they frequently could hear wolves howling near their villages during the full moon in January.
This January’s “Wolf Moon” was particularly fun because it was also a “Super Moon.” A super moon occurs when a full moon is closest to the earth (perigee) during its somewhat elliptical orbit around the earth. It appears 14% larger and 30% brighter than it does at its farthest point (apogee) in its orbit. So the larger, brighter “Super Wolf Moon” of January was a special one.
“But Wait! There’s More!” as the infomercial pitchman would say. The full moon of January, 2019, was also known as a “Blood Moon”. A total lunar eclipse occurred spanning the midnight hour between the 20th and 21st of January. During the time when the moon was completely in the shadow of the earth it turned an eerie shade of red, thus the name “Blood Moon”.
Early eclipse phase
Blood Moon Phase
The term super moon is not scientifically defined so anytime a full moon occurs while the earth is closer than average to the earth the term can be used. However not all super moons are created equal. The next super ”Super Moon” will not occur until 2034, although I’m certain several full moons will be titled so before then. I am excited by the thought of chasing the moon through a cornfield a month short of my 91st birthday!
Until we meet again,
Barefoot Bud
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Check back weekly for Rob’s musings from Middle Spunk Creek.
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Blog Index
#22 Chasing the Moon (Barefoot Bud-Guest Blog)
#21 Almost at the Starting Gate
#20 Perfeckshun
#19 BIG NEWS!
#18 Sexy Woman
#17 Quantity or Quality
#16 Who’s in Control of the Keyboard?
#15 Greed: An Aphrodisiac
#14 2018 in the Rear View Mirror
#13 Day from Hell
#12 Deleted.
#11 Kissing Frogs
#10. Reaping Thanksgiving
#9. Fountain of Youth
#8. Curare
#7. Strangers in a Strange Land
#6. Comics Seriously
#5. Words
#4. Monarchs
#3. Who’s Next Saint Paul?
#2 Amore Mio Lily
#1. No longer available
