Tonight was the appearance of the Full Flower Moon of May 27, 2010. It was highly anticipated by me. I've always loved seeing the full moon in the sky. There is an energy I feel that is like nothing else. The above picture is the best of the ones I took. The digital camera I've been taking my photos with these many months is Glenn's, and although it takes great pictures it's not the best at capturing things after darkness falls. (Although, now that I'm looking at it here, it's not that bad a picture.) It might be capable of taking decent night time photos, but I have no idea of how to investigate that. No manual. When I have funds to spend on a new camera that is suited for night photography, I'll snap one up. I'd love to be able to capture what I see in the dark world of the night. Bwahahahaha...
It wasn't long after 7:00PM that the tide in the river/creek (no idea what to call it, really) was noticeably high. Glenn informed me that it wouldn't reach it's full height until around 8:45PM or so. I looked it up on line, and according to the info I got the tide was supposed to rise up to about 8.1 feet. There are some groupings of reeds out in the bed of the flow that I use to gauge how high the tide is, and last I was able to see (the tide came in to it's full height after dark) the reeds were mostly engulfed by the water. Past high tides have covered the road from where we are out to Tybee Island before, which of course sucks for anyone who lives on Tybee and needs to get home from work. I would guess that's the case this time. I'm sure it only lasts a few hours though. Tides do have a tendency to go out...
I started going out in front of the building when it started to enter dusk. Wanted to get a jump on an appearance by the moon, and wanted to try and get a picture of it while there was some semblance of light left in the sky (well, enough that would allow me to get a clear picture). I did this every few minutes, hoping to see the shining orb hanging up there. The second time out I paused for a moment and looked around me. I felt myself being transported to when I was young. There was a vibe in the air that felt like October. The condo buildings, the crispness that was starting to enter the air, the lowering light level that started to cast shadow and made the silhouette of the trees take on a dark blue-black color...I looked across the open grassy area across from our building and the sound of kids calling out to one another echoed back to me. Hearing their voices in that setting took me back to bike riding with my friends in the dimness of the evening, to walking trails in the woods around the apartments I lived in after dusk, to snatching fireflies from the air and putting them in jars. It also transported me to getting together with my friends on Halloween. (Of course we all made our own costumes then. In retrospect, there were years I phoned it in on the costume angle...for times when I had last minute costume needs a hobo came in handy once, but my go to costume was a gypsy.) I could almost see a group of us going to one of the buildings in a colorful herd. Our various candy bags clutched in our hands, some of us rooting around in our bags through those hideous Taffy's wrapped in black and orange wax paper or those horrible circus peanuts, looking for a coveted item. Those were the days of homemade goodies. When someone could hand out candy apples or popcorn balls and not be accused of poisoning children. Living out in L.A. made me feel sad for kids today in terms of Halloween. I always thought how sad it was that they would never experience Halloween the way I did. But now that I've moved back to Georgia, well...my opinion has changed. Here, back on Planet Earth, if it's possible anywhere it's possible here.
One of my trips out to check for the moon, I decided to for-go the flip flops and venture out barefoot. Used to go barefoot everywhere when I was a kid. Especially during the summer. I walked down the front walk to the asphalt and...ooch, eech, ouch...my feet aren't conditioned for the outside. The stones in the asphalt were jabbing in my feet making me skip gingerly cross the drive to the concrete edge on the other side. In my youth when I spent most of my time outside of school traipsing around with my friends, or hanging out at the pool, I could walk casually across scalding hot asphalt in 90-something degree weather and not feel a thing. The bottoms of my feet were like leather. Now...not so much. Just another transporting observation of the evening.
I get so turned around where we are in terms of which way is which, so before I headed out the last time I asked Glenn if he knew where the moon was supposed to rise. He grabbed the paper and it said South-East, so he pointed me in the right direction and I headed out. I was keeping in the same general area, but still wasn't seeing anything 'moon-like'. Was nearing the point of giving up when I noticed a glow behind some thick trees by one of the buildings I pass on my walks to the pond. It was definitely not a building light or street light, so I investigated further and there it was. The big, bright, beautiful moon. Snapped a few pictures, but it wasn't photographing as big as I would like. Decided to head down pond way to see if I could get some better shots of it. The walk itself was so nice, so peaceful. I haven't enjoyed being outside after nightfall so much in years. I found another picture op so snapped a few more. By this time I was about halfway to the pond. What is that? There was this strange droning sound. It wasn't the compressor for an air conditioner, it wasn't...well, I didn't know WHAT the hell it was. As I approached the pond it got louder and it dawned on me. Several weeks ago I had snapped some photos at the pond of tadpoles...it was the cacophonous chirping of frogs and/or toads. Sounded like hundreds of them. The pond is circled by condos, so my first thought was 'how do these people sleep during this?' The sound of hundreds of amphibian creatures chirping all at once isn't like the sound of crickets. Crickets can be soothing, this...wasn't. So I snapped a few more pictures of the moon, and headed back home. I took my time though. As I mentioned, I was enjoying strolling around out there.
Oh...one thing I didn't mention was that I ran into my old pal, Crusty. Those of you who read my blog will remember him from an earlier installment. I was taking a walk when we had our first meeting. That's him (the orange one), and a friend of his. I don't know who his friend was, we weren't introduced. He did seem a bit shy. (Maybe he was a robot? Look at his eyes!)
So I came back home, grabbed myself a cold beverage, and settled down here in front of the computer to make an entry in my blog. No hustle or bustle here, but there never is. That's fine with me.
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