Fact of the Week: Blue Moons

20 October 2011 Keith 1 Comment

The term “blue moon” comes from the traditional agricultural naming of the full moons throughout the year.

The 12 full moons we see each year are named according to their relationship with the equinoxes and solstices. The names vary in different regions, but well-known examples are the harvest moon, which is the first full moon after the autumnal equinox, and the hunter’s moon, which is the second full moon after the autumnal equinox. Similarly the Lenten moon, the last full moon of winter, is always in Lent, and the egg moon (or the Easter moon, or paschal moon), which is the first full moon of spring, is always in the week before Easter.

By this system there are usually three full moons between an equinox and a solstice, or vice versa. However, because the lunar cycle is slightly too short for there to always be three full moons in this stretch of time, occasionally there are four full moons. When this happens, to ensure that the full moons continue to be named correctly with respect to the solstices and equinoxes, the third of the four full moons is called a blue moon.

There are seven blue moons in every 19 year period. The last blue moon was on 21 November 2010, and the next will be on 21 August 2013.

[Aidan Copeland in “The Last Word”, New Scientist, 1 October 2011]

amusements, personal

Cartoon of the Week

18 October 2011 Keith

Click the image for a larger view.

memes, words

Word of the Week: Distaff

17 October 2011 Keith

Distaff.

1. A cleft staff about 3 feet long, on which, in the ancient mode of spinning, wool or flax was wound.
2.The staff or ‘rock’ of a hand spinning-wheel, upon which the flax to be spun is placed.
3. As the type of women’s work or occupation. Hence, symbolically, for the female sex, female authority or dominion; also, the female branch of a family; a female heir.

Image: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Girl with spindle and distaff. (Spindle on left, distaff on right.)

memes, natural history, personal, photography

[42/52] Green Woodpecker

17 October 2011 Keith

Week 42 entry for 52 weeks challenge.

Green Woodpecker (probably male) this morning on our next door neighbour’s lawn. This is the third or fourth time I’ve seen him visiting in the last 2-3 weeks. He spends a lot of time (I watched him for 45 minutes one day) covering the same area, so it must be very rich in ants.

Taken at a range of 20-25 yards from our study window with my biggest lens and still this is a small crop from the middle of a frame.

beliefs, food+drink, memes, pleasures, quotes, sexuality

Listography – Top Five Keywords

16 October 2011 Keith 4 Comments

As regular readers will know I don’t always do Kate’s weekly Listography — sometimes because I just don’t get time and sometimes because the subject doesn’t fire me with enthusiasm. But this week Kate is asking us something simple: list the top five keyword searches on your weblog (excepting the name of the weblog and keywords like “blogger”). So I can hardly refuse, especially as whenever I see anyone listing the searches used to find their weblogs they’re usually either a scream or completely unbelievable!

Will mine be any different? In a word, No …

At #1 we have pheasant. Yep really. Four times the number of hits of its nearest competitor! Everyone seems to have liked my December 2009 recipe for Pheasant Casserole.

#2 is the quite shocking pussy porn. I guess, guys, you were sadly disappointed to find this, this or this.

#3 is perhaps the equally worrying, and equally disappointing, dumb blonde.

At #4 we have another search for pornography: osho on porn. But this time it is a serious article.

Finally at #5 we go from the sublime(?) to the ridiculous with the search woodpecker feet. Well, yes, I really did write a post about woodpecker feet!

In the words of JBS Haldane:

The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

memes, personal, photography

[41/52] Barber Shop Girls

14 October 2011 Keith

Week 41 entry for 52 weeks challenge.

Girls from the next door ladies hairdressers having a break outside the barber’s shop at Rayners Lane, Harrow. They’re there, drinking coffee and smoking, every time I go past; they never seem to do any work. How do they make a living?

quotes