A Full Snow Moon that is living up to its name

Tonight's full moon is called The Full Snow Moon. That seems like a pretty appropriate name, especially with the view I have out the window. We had a hardy snowfall today. It's beautiful out there, but we have the kind of night sky that generally goes with snow. It's kind of fuzzy and milky so I don't see the moon now.

I did take a photo of the moon last night, and I actually think it qualified as full at that time. From what I've been reading, the full moon rose last night and reached its full peak tonight.

I've been learning a lot about the stages of the moon lately, in part from this web site:

MoonSign.Today

I think all of you would enjoy at least casually browsing through this site. I especially like the Moon Calendar which shows you the percentage of the moon that is showing.

For those who are into astrology, you will also notice that there is an indication for which sign the moon is in for several days. I've been reading some books about Moon Signs lately and have been interested in the information about the signs the moon transitions through. The books I've been reading describe how you could expect different emotional reactions from yourself and others, depending on which sign the moon is in. This got me thinking about how it might be good to have a head's up about that sort of information, and that led me to this Moon Sign site.

My spooky tree shot. It looks like the moon is in a basket.

I have another recommendation for astrology buffs. It's a book titled The Moon in Your Life: Being a Lunar Type in a Solar World, by Donna Cunningham. I like Donna Cunningham. She's one of those writers where you feel like a friend is talking to you while you're reading her words. Her work is really accessible. Even if you don't know much about what she's writing about, she'll easily clue you in in a friendly way.

Another web site I really like for moon information is the Farmer's Almanac site. Actually, I like the Farmer's Almanac in general. I keep running into information about planting in relation to moon cycles, and I plan to keep that in mind in the future. Anyway, here is a specific page the Farmer's Almanac put up about tonight's moon:

Full Moon for February 2020

I got a kick out of the art there. It's like the moon is some kind of ice cream treat. :) It says here that tonight's moon is called The Snow Moon because February is typically the month where the most snow falls in the United States. That seems right to me.

Have any of you gone outside to see the moon over the past few nights? If you're like me, you got cold and quickly hopped back inside after taking a look. :)

Happy New Year!

I hope you are all having a happy new year's day, and that 2018 is off to a great start for you. It is off to a very cold start where I am! It's 5° now and according to the internet, it feels like -13° out there. I'm not going to go outside to find out how it feels!

In keeping with the cold theme, and also the New Year theme, I'm going to share some photos I've been saving up of the fresh, clean snow. I thought fresh snow on a bright sunny day is a good symbol for a new year. And come to think of it, this bridge is a symbol in itself - a bridge from one year to the next.

So getting off to our fresh start here... I took this first set of photos on a cold day a few weeks back in the downtown village area. I was in a small park, across this bridge.

It was very peaceful, being the only person out there. I think the temperature had a lot to do with that!

Aren't blue shadows on the snow pretty?

This one is of the bridge railing. That snow doesn't even look real. It looks like some kind of fluffy dessert topping.

A creek runs under the bridge.

You can get an idea of its outline better here.

These rocks looked like a series of mushrooms or marshmallows.

A little bit of snow melting on the bridge:

This photo is my computer's wallpaper now. I really like the look of the red berries against that bright, blue sky.

It's fun to see any sign of plant life in winter. You might remember seeing these berries in one of my autumn blog posts.

This next set of photos was taken in a local park. 

This next picture was one I was hoping to get that day. The sun shining through this area of trees reminds me of The Nightmare Before Christmas, when Jack is walking through the forest, looking at different holiday doors on the trees.

What do you think?

A link for those who don't get the videos:

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Forest Scene

There was this cool situation where part of the water had turned to ice and part had not. We must have been at just the right in-between temperature for that to happen.

I thought it was so pretty when the sun came out and there was this warmth in the trees, next to that ice and snow.

I was trying to photograph the deer that was leaning over and didn't even notice the second one who was looking at me! After I took the photo and looked at my camera, I was like "Wait a second! There's another one?"

Here's something I've never seen - a waterfall that is partially frozen and partially moving.

Do you see the water falling on the right side of this picture?

This old house is near the park. As I'm looking at this photo, I'm noticing how there's very little color in it. It's nearly sepia. I feel like this same image could have been seen for the past century.

And in keeping with the snowy theme... I'm almost afraid to decorate with anything that says "Let it snow". I think it's some superstition that if I say this, a bunch of snow is going to fall. 😄 But these gel clings were too cute to pass up. I found them at Target's after Christmas sale. The after Christmas sale was at 50% off when I was there, but it's probably at least 70% off now. I'd be interested to hear about your after Christmas finds!

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I placed the clings on actual snow to take this picture.

I'll leave you guys with a little trivia gift from MeTV. It's a fun way to start 2018.

14 words and slang terms that turn 50 years old in 2018

Tell 'em Large Marge Sent Ya!

The last month or so of frigid weather has made me want to take in some movies. When the temperatures are in the negatives, I just want to cover up with a bunch of blankets and bust out the DVDs! I had a certain movie on my mind lately. Some recent conversations have been reminding me of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

The first time I saw this movie would have been around when it came out. Then about 15 years later I saw it on the big screen at one of those midnight movie nights in an old theater. It was a lot of fun. I remember people yelling out the famous lines along with Pee-Wee. Some parts, like the Large Marge scene, are experienced best on the big screen.



Good old Large Marge. That claymation moment where her face morphs scared me so much when I was a kid. That part is pure Tim Burton. Pee-Wee's Great Adventure was one of Tim Burton's earliest movies. It was also the first movie Danny Elfman wrote a score for. According to the DVD commentary, it took a lot of coaxing to get Elfman to take part in the project. Good for him that he did, because it started him on a really successful path in composing movie scores.

This third time around watching the movie turned into more of a fifth time around. I ended up watching the movie again to hear Tim Burton and Paul Reubens do their commentary. Then I played it again for the Danny Elfman commentary. I learned some fun trivia and was surprised that I was still interested in watching the same movie that many times in a row.

I have to share one piece of trivia I learned. I'm sure nearly everyone reading this is an Elvira fan. Did you know that Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) has a role in this movie? I didn't even recognize her.



She's in more of a biker babe role here. I think she looks just as cool like this! I might actually prefer her biker look. You'll see her at the end of this clip:



Back to Large Marge. There are a series of events that lead up to her scene. It starts with Pee-Wee hitchhiking to Texas. Pee-Wee has the fortune or misfortune to be picked up by Mickey who is an escaped convict. I don't think I'm doing a whole lot of plot spoiling here, considering what this movie is like and how you've very likely seen it already.



So Mickey strands Pee-Wee on the side of the road in the middle of the night and along comes...



Isn't that a classic ghost story moment?

I was surprised to find that I am far from the only person Large Marge made an impression on. In fact, I ran into several tributes to her scene on YouTube! The videos ranged from cute to confusing. (The Cutest one)
 
I watched Big Top Pee-Wee next, but I wouldn't bother with that one! The only funny thing about that is the series of negative reviews online... It was really missing Tim Burton's vision! OK, to be fair, Kris Kristofferson was hilarious as Mace Montana, the circus manager. I'm not sure if he was supposed to be funny, but he was to me. I think I was just amused by watching someone basically be his normal self while surrounded by a bunch of craziness.



So my advice is to skip Big Top Pee-Wee and check out Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. If you're a fan of Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is definitely worth revisiting. It's interesting to watch the beginning of a film partnership and two amazing careers.  And when you're done watching it, be sure to read this:

14 Things You Probably Never Knew About "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure"

I bet you'll learn something!