Sunday, September 9, 2012

Once in a Blue Moon

It's not very often we stay up past bedtime to throw rocks in the lake, but we made an exception for the blue moon. I mean, this was our last chance to see a blue moon until 2015, so how could we NOT stay up and celebrate?!


Those of you who know me won't be surprised that I actually researched our "blue moon" to understand exactly what it was. Come to find out, "blue moon" refers not to color, but to rarity. Blue moons are defined as either the fourth full moon in a season, or, more recently, as the second full moon in a month. It's the second definition that covers August's blue moon; the month's first full moon was on August 1. 

Blue moons happen because our calendar months don't precisely sync with the moon's orbit. It takes the moon 29.5 days to wax and wane from full to new to full again. With the exception of February, months are longer than that, meaning that once in a while the timing works out so there are two full moons in one month. On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.

Sam studied the water long and hard before figuring out where the best place would be to plant his rock bed.




Henry was less patient and went straight for the boulders that were sure to make the biggest splash.





Admiring the moon between his throws


Sam couldn't have cared less for the moon. He was much to enthralled with the water, rocks and bugs.



Henry was convinced we'd found bear tracks


Check out that form! Cowboy football, look out...


Needless to say, this was the best blue moon EVER.

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