The weather gods were kind today, as if to apologize for the dreariness of last week and the nastiness of the coming week: tomorrow’s forecast calls for a Nor’easter with high winds and a month’s worth of rain in a couple of days.
In contrast, today was pleasantly benign. A bit of sunshine, a few puffs of veiling fog and a light breeze on the trail, although close to the edge that light breeze turned into a stun breeze that tried to knock over my 10 pound tripod on several occasions.
In the morning I hiked the start of the Deadmans Bay Path, from Fort Amherst to Freshwater Bay and back:
Frequent readers of this blog will know we haven’t had much of a winter here yet, and today I found a surprising reminder of that fact:
A crackerberry blossom was peacefully enjoying the sun, unaware of the date, December 20th, one day before the official start of winter.
I also found crackerberry plants submerged in a puddle of rainwater:
Something else interesting:
These blue-green stained pieces of dead wood are a common sight along the East Coast Trail, for the longest time I didn’t know what they were until I read about them here.
My evening hike was reserved for Father Troy’s Trail, where I had an appointment with a rising moon:
Tonight at 3:03 AM the moon will meet up with Earth’s shadow in what will be the first Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse in over 300 years. Try saying that three times fast. In Newfoundland, look up from 4:11 AM to 5:23 AM (early morning of December 21) for the full lunar eclipse, providing the clouds don’t spoil the show.
Bij ons geen maansverduistering gezien. FOG!!!. En de maan was bijna onder om 7.45 uur.
Hi Edwin, a shame about the fog, otherwise you could have seen it at moonset, the times I quoted here on the blog were for Newfoundland, your eclipse was partially visible during moonset which was early this morning for you…
Do you still remember the last one, we saw that together from the attic window in Hoofddorp.
I can’t wait to see if you got pictures of the lunar eclipse! I couldn’t stay up – that was WAY past my bedtime!!
Hi Nancy, don’t worry about not being awake for the eclipse, I was awake and missed it too thanks to overcast conditions at my location. And this was after I planned the whole thing for months!
Oh no!! What a disappointment.
I’d be interested to know what your plans for something like this would entail!