November

Over the past month I have watched one full moon wane and another one wax into existence.  Our sky over the valley has been incredibly clear recently.  The waxing moon has felt like a bright city street lamp invading my windows.  A few days ago,while the moon was yet full, I woke several times (around 3-4 AM) and found the moon beaming in like a far away flashlight above me.  You would not need a flashlight to get around outside.

 I have also, for the first time, felt the earth's true progression around our star.  The angle of the sunrise on the horizon is shifting slightly each day, and after eight months the sunrise has shifted to the south it seems.

I find that I am more in tune with the phases of the moon out here too.  I contribute these observations to this landscape (as-far-as-one-can-see-horizon), little cloud cover, my occupation, and the lack of light pollution.  Thank God for rural places! I have always admired the changing of seasons and here it seems Winter edges in each day.    

I welcome November.

I did not have an occasion to think up a Halloween costume for this year, but I thought I would share a former year with you:

Apparently cows were in my future at the ripe ol' age of three.  Too bad it was a Holstein costume...