Strawberry Moon and Miniature CSI

The past couple nights have presented me with a pretty great view of the sky. Last night's Strawberry Moon was beautiful:

I read that Jupiter could be seen by some people as a very bright little light near the moon. I didn't see any small extra lights, but I did think the moon itself was especially glowy.

I was out there a couple nights before last and got these very dramatic photos:

On the night I took these, it was pretty late and the wind was blowing at 20 mph. (I checked that online.) So it was exciting and fairly spooky to be out there. It was also only about 50° at that time. I could easily pretend it was an autumn night.

From a spooky sky to a spooky find, maybe some of you can help me with what I'm calling my "Miniature CSI" project. I found this little piece of evidence right on the surface of the soil while I was planting flowers.

Its other side:

As you can see, it was left clean.

And also as you can see, from this photo of it next to a quarter, this little piece of evidence is small.

So what do you guys think? I'm not even sure what part of the skeletal structure this came from, or whose skeletal structure it came from. It's hard to guess which creature this used to be a part of. I'm thinking based on its size, this was once part of a little bird or a rodent. Maybe part of its spine? We all have enough (fake) critter skeletons for Halloween. Maybe those could be a clue?

This experience at first gave me the feeling that I was working on a forensic investigation. Then, as I searched for more little bones, I felt like a paleontologist. I was hoping to find enough to piece together, well... something. I imagine this is what it feels like on a much larger scale for people as they find dinosaur bones. This might be a really small pterodactyl. ;) If you're wondering, no, I didn't find any more "evidence". This one little bone was just randomly there.

I'm interested to hear any of your thoughts on this! 

Say Hello to the Strawberry Moon

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been blogging or on social media at all, really. It's a busy time of year for me with gardening and a lot of cleaning/organizing. Anyway, I'm back with a quick post about tonight's full moon. This moon looks almost like a harvest moon, which is surprising for June.

June's full moon is known as the "Strawberry Moon" and will be the smallest moon of 2017. In fact, I saw some people referring to it as a "minimoon".

I like this photo, because it looks like the moon is wearing a little garland of leaves around its head. (That's a tree branch)

There are other names for June's full moon. I'm not sure why, but it's also called the "Oak Moon", "Cold Moon", and "Long Night's Moon". Those last two make no sense to me, because the nights aren't cold and long in June. Actually, I feel like I heard one of the full moons in the winter called a "Cold Moon".

If you're wondering why June's full moon is known commonly as the "Strawberry Moon" that's because Algonquin tribes knew this as a time to gather fruit. (That's according to the Farmer's Almanac.) The Almanac also lists this as the "Full Rose Moon" and "Honey Moon". Those names I can figure out. It seems this moon has lots of names, but then June is a time with lots of moon naming inspiration. The Farmer's Almanac page is worth reading:

The Mini Strawberry Moon

If you get a chance, it's worth looking in the sky tonight! The color of this full moon will give you a feeling of autumn a few months early.