Autumn moon

It’s an early Harvest Moon this year for the Northern Hemisphere, shining on the nights of September 8-9.  And it’s not just any Harvest Moon, it's also a supermoon.  We missed the moon last night because the weather suddenly turned fall-like, but the night before last the moon lit up the white dahlias like lamps outside the bedroom window.

Those floods in the Southwest are shocking to see on the news, especially when Northwest was one of the driest, warmest places in the country this summer.  We've never ran the fan so much, or been pestered by mosquitoes before. I think the same one has been feasting on us all summer.  Once upon a time, you didn't even need window screens in Seattle, but even the nights have been much warmer than usual. The world suddenly seems to be changing faster than we can keep up.

But some things stay the same, like the joy of harvest. Around here that means the last tomatoes.  The name Harvest Moon came from farmers on autumn evenings in the days before tractor lights, when the moon helped them to gather their crops in the diminishing daylight hours. As the sun’s light faded in the west, the moon would  rise in the east to illuminate the fields throughout the night.