Blue Moon

The night before New Years Eve, I stole out into the frigid temps to take this snap of the breathtaking full moon. I stood there in the blackness and looked through the bare branches at the glow that was radiating from it, in awe. It was almost like the moon was exhaling all around and you could see the breath, like I could see my own as I was standing there shivering in my slippers and pj's under my down coat.

There was supposed to be a Blue Moon on the big night, but it was so cloudy then I couldn't see a thing. I still went out and tilted my face skyward and made my new year wishes on it, a tradition I started many moons ago.

Did you see it where you were? Did you take any pictures? Tell me in the comments what it looked like to you...

Sky Series

A few nights ago the sky from our patio awed us once again. It's getting to the time of year that the sun has moved across the horizon and sets in a place that peeks out from the side of our apartment building. The building we lived in before is is just across the street. We faced west and while only on the 8th floor, we were just above the tree line, with nothing else blocking the way, and had a spectacular sunset view each night. We'd mark the calendar and the seasons by the setting position, which shifted slowly across the horizon line from left to right then back again once we hit solstice. It was our own sundial.

Now we face east and south, bringing us an magnificent sweep from the skyscrapers downtown past the Zoo to Rice University Village. The Mecom fountain, and beyond it, The Park's reflection pool and the blue lake sparkle back at me from my windows -- a refreshing break amid streets and low lying buildings. Some days we can make out clear to Galveston and the ship channel.

We always see the sunrise and the moon rise, but the sky on the west side only looks like this for a few months in winter.


As much as I have struggled at times with living in a city that doesn't offer much of what I thrive on, I think I need to focus more on things that I have been brought into my life that I would not necessarily find elsewhere. For all the "big sky', the gulf breezes and the storms that run fast and furious through Houston, we always have uniquely changing cloudscapes and air texture... and they make for some of the most beautiful skies, changing in every moment as dusk descends.

Whether or not our conditions in this moment are ideal, there is beauty to be found, and a wealth of extraordinary in the ordinary to be mined if we only can take it in.
What are those things in your day, where you live? Whether it's a bit of nature, moments with your child or pet or aging parent, your health or the fact that you have this thing called a car and it takes you places, are there small miracles around you which don't register enough?

Never One The Same

From my husband's little log cabin, 9,500 feet up in the Colorado Rockies, we watched a most unusual sunset unfold to the west.

The clouds seemed to have fire within them.

 I wanted to paint it. 

Once it had set, all was serene, quiet. A wash of silky transparent peach and melon color swept the sky, the mountains turning black in contrast. 

Lest We Forget

It's so easy to get lost in all our little to-do's in daily life and forget just how much is out there. Once in a while something reminds us...



Can you see the two white dots to the lower right of the moon? This was a pretty darn good picture my little digital took of the two nights when you could see both Jupiter and Venus shining brightly in the sky.

Did any of you see it too? Take pictures of it?

And now the Winter Solstice has come and gone, and the cycles of the moon will take us closer and closer to spring.