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Bex Hall > full moon walk

full moon walk

We XOX December’s Full Moon

December 20, 2021

Even if it was late to the party

Full moon, Monday, 12/20/21

The stormy weather prevented this month’s full moon sighting and the icy temperatures hampered any kind of walk. There were many months this past year we had interference: a school night, cloudy weather, a really late appearance. To see the moon together and work around those times, we used FaceTime or we woke at 4 a.m. Or we tent camped. 

But mostly we spent time together while we waited on the moon. This was another one of those times. 


On Saturday afternoon, we play Go Fish with a deck short of two cards and we make up rules as we go along. I print scorecards for Yahtzee® and fill all tasks but one—the five of a kind. We tire of rolling, do the math, and declare a winner. 

With regular cards, we play war, and I explain the difference between Jacks and Jokers. How an Ace can be both high or low and it’s usually up to the dealer to say. I teach her how to “Cut thin to win” or tap the deck to leave it as is. She practices shuffling which results in 52 card pickup. 

She finds last year’s leftover Christmas cards and uses one to write a letter to Santa. She dictates and I do the penmanship. When I sign off at the end with xox under her name, she asks why. I tell her it means love and affection. The X means a kiss and the O, a hug and she directs me to add one more O, to be fair. 

Letter to Santa 2021

She remembers a decorative holiday box I had a few weeks ago and finds it to use for the letter. She then needs an accompanying gift, which she plucks from the tree, an ornament I’m okay with going to the North Pole.

She wants to make art and I explain I haven’t felt up to painting in a long time, but I remember I’m giving her watercolor pencils next week, so I ask if she’s ever used them before. She hasn’t, so I get mine out and show her how they work. As we’re coloring, she reminds me I said I haven’t felt like doing art to which I respond, true, but here I am. “You must have a positive influence on me,” and she smiles.

We watch holiday movies and check the moon’s location in the Skyview app. Once it’s over the horizon, we search the cloud covered sky. No moon. It’s below freezing and windy. We plan to wake at four, but even then the sky is blank.

I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself.”

—Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Before bed, we use Neutrogena® makeup remover wipes on our faces. I comment how the smell reminds me of something I can’t remember from my childhood, but it makes me feel comfort today. Ellie says the smell reminds her of the day she was born and how happy she was. I ask her if she’s still happy all these eight years later and her soft face beams when she quips, “Of course, silly.”

Once in bed, we read “How to be a Moonflower” by Katie Daisy and talk about planting a lunar garden next Spring. We study the animals that only come out at night and memorize the word ‘nocturnal’ and she announces she is this in order to stay up longer. I turn on KidsSongs Sleepyheads by Nancy Cassidy and we watch the flicker of the lighted snow filled lantern dance on the ceiling.

At first light we don warm clothes and go in search of deer in the woods. We tiptoe over twigs and use library voices. We find patches of flattened blonde switchgrass in the field behind the tree line and we make up stories about the family who slept in these beds. We listen for hoof steps or rustles, but hear only geese honks. We track their path as they fly in a V over the treetops in a sky made of tattered lace. And still no moon.

She goes home in the rain on Sunday and this morning, Monday the 20th, at 6:00, there it is, the mostly full moon. We FaceTime and she sees it here, but it’s not visible at her house. She shows me her room and the cat and the holiday shirt she’s wearing to school for a party. Her dad hollers from another room and it’s time for her to go.

FaceTime on 12/20/21 Full moon, finally

Right after we say our usual I-love-you-I-love-you-too goodbyes, I’m about to tap the red End button but pause when I hear her pipe up, “Mimi, ex oh, ex oh.”

Ex oh, ex oh, to you too, Ellie.

And XOXO to you. 

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: full moon walk

September gives us a full Harvest Moon

September 25, 2021

We walked at Our Lady of Fatima shrine this month

Ellie under the Harvest Moon

My granddaughter, Ellie, came to visit for our walk when the moon is full adventure this past weekend. 

We picked poke berries and mashed them to make paint with a mortar and pestle. We cut open milkweed pods and discovered silky seeds. We picked Jewelweed pods and popped them open. We found a box turtle and counted scute rings to speculate its age.

Making poke berry paint
Counting scutes on a box turtle
What’s inside a milkweed pod?

We searched for Jiminy Cricket in the garage and experienced the wonders of surround sound and marveled about how one tiny insect could be so loud by just rubbing its forewings together. We chased grasshoppers even as she kept up her “I’m so scared of bugs” narrative.

Ah, grasshopper

As night fell, we drove to a nearby outdoor shrine to walk under the full moon. She brought her American Girl doll and we carried flashlights. We spoke about how waaay back when, before electricity, farmers finished gathering their crops after dark by the light of the harvest moon.

September Harvest Moon 2021

As we walked around the reflecting pool, we witnessed several large frogs jump in and we watched the koi swim in the murky depths. When she asked about the statues, I told her the story about Our Lady who appeared in white, as bright as the sun, in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, to three young children with a message of hope.

About that time, my husband shined his flashlight down from above her head, she looked up, and I took a photo that captured a marvelous expression with the statue and full moon in the background.

Ellie under the Harvest Moon

Later, she pointed out the clouds on the moon looked like rippled sand she’s seen on the beach. I know sand ripples are called saltation, but what’s the physical process called for rippled clouds, I wondered.

September full moon over the Ohio River

We wrapped up our moon time with a bedtime story or three, only this time around, she read them to me. 

Favorite book by Marianne Richmond

“Be brave to explore in the daring unknown. Be brave to return to the cozy of home. Be brave to BE YOU on your journey begun. Let your heart lead the way…be brave little one!”

See you in October for the Hunter’s Full Moon! xox

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: adventures, full moon walk, moon cycles

An urban full moon walk

August 22, 2021

Sunset in Ironton, Ohio August 2021

As we drive to Ironton, Ohio for our full moon walk on the levee, it is her, instead of me, who is the first to say, “Would you look at that beautiful sunset?” I put my phone away and look.

We park and stroll on the paved walkway, our companions the river and flood wall. One mimics the moody sky, the other is painted with murals of sunshine, flowers, and a quote by Audrey Hepburn, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

Flood wall mural, Ironton, OH

A little further up and we can see over the flood wall. There are more murals painted on the overpass piers by the train tracks with messages of hope, love, and healing. 

Catch the full moon!

We reach the top of the levee and see the moon. It’s been watching our backs this whole time. It hangs in the sky beside the courthouse dome. We take the posed photos and talk about why it’s called the Sturgeon moon. We speak of Jupiter and Saturn and planets vs. stars and in the talk of a vast universe, under the glow of street lamps, her small voice croaks, “I miss my daddy.”

He’s been out of town this week, so we FaceTime on the ride home.

Ellie on the levee, Ironton, OH

This month’s walk when the moon is full is flavored with change. This is her first week of 2nd grade and she is bolder. Instead of asking to go slow in the gator, she yells, “Go faster!” 

She no longer wants to order a kid’s meal but assures me, “If you get one Mimi, I’ll take the toy so you don’t have to keep it.”

And at bedtime I am no longer needed to lie down beside her while she goes to sleep. She points out the full moon peering through the window, her nightlight. Her safety. But after a while, she asks me to come hold her hand.

So I return to her room and do just that.

Full Sturgeon Moon, August 2021

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: adventures, full moon walk, moon cycles

This month’s full moon walk was more of a ride

July 29, 2021

In a side-by-side, which was convenient

Full Buck Moon aka Pumpkin Moon

After sunset we traveled down the road many times but it was almost 10:00 p.m. before we spotted the full buck moon. We spoke about the reason for the name: the antlers of male deer reach their peak of growth around this time in July.

However, it was a bold orange and Ellie declared it the “Pumpkin Moon.” So it shall forever be.

Her friend came to spend the night, and it was late, so a promise of a 4:00 a.m. wake up call to take a walk was made.

However, at 4:00, fog obscured the moon. I turned on the TV and watched as Naomi Osaka carried the Olympic torch to its ultimate destination. In the girl’s bedroom, on the floor, were their glow necklaces arranged in their version of the Olympic logo, illuminating the dark. I broke my promise and let them sleep.

Naomi Osaka receives the torch
A different version of Olympic rings

The next night we pitched a tent for a girl’s only camp out. We ventured out on the Gator, but no moon visible. On the way back to camp, Ellie spotlighted rabbits in the fields and we sang the Little Bunny Foo Foo song. She made shadow ears with her fingers in the flashlight. 

Girls only campout
Campfire by the Ohio River

We then talked about what ‘moral of the story’ means, what goons are, and the delicious world of homophones and puns.

But still no moon.  We gave up, retired to the tent, and read Charlie Mackesy’s book until Ellie dozed off.

A while later as I gazed through the screened tent window, I noticed the pumpkin moon had made its way above the horizon as I drifted to sleep.

At 4:00 a.m. I woke Ellie to ride back to the house for coffee. Wrapped in damp blankets, barefoot, we slid onto the dew soaked seats of the Gator and as I was about to turn the key; we looked westward and there nestled in the walnut tree tops, the full moon. Finally.

It seems like this month wasn’t so much about walking when the moon is full as it was simply being together and being curious during our quest.

See you next month for the Sturgeon Moon.

I love Charlie Mackesy’s book

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: full moon walk, moon cycles

June’s walk includes surprise guest

June 24, 2021

The more the merrier

Four in the morning barge on the Ohio River during a full moon

This month’s Walk When the Moon is Full included Ellie’s other grandmother, Nana (@thewisdomsanctuary).

Schedules didn’t allow us to gather in person so we used technology to share faces and time together under the same moon.

Nana, Ellie, & Mimi

It was around 8:30 and I texted Nana to see if the moon had appeared over her house. I used the SkyView app to locate the position here and sent her a screen shot. Turns out she was doing the same thing at the same time. Totally unplanned, but fun.

I wandered around the neighborhood waiting for daylight to end and saw the neighbor kids being creative with chalk. Watched as a barge floated by and the sun set on the Ohio River. Walked among the lengthening shadows near the tree line.

Neighbor kids being creative

We three walked our respective yards and roads together, under the same moon. We spoke about how some call this the Strawberry Moon, because now is usually the time of harvest. We noticed the colors in the skies and voted on whose was prettiest, even though it technically wasn’t a contest. Ellie spotted her cat, Buddy, in the window, observing.

Three different locations, same moon

Then we all saw the fireflies. Slowly rising from the grass, winking their tails in the ever darkening twilight. Lightning bugs dotting the shadows with sparkles of warm, yellow lights. The full moon as backdrop to their stage.

We said our good nights and good byes and blew kisses with promises of another walk in another month, at the next full moon.

Until next month!

We see the same moon, you and I. You in your world and me in mine…I find that comforting.”

—Mary Wade

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: full moon walk, moon cycles

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About Bex

 

Bex Hall

Her writing has appeared in various online and print publications, most recently in Kerning, a literary magazine, and in the Stories of Hope Collection in Transplant Living. Her artwork has appeared and sold through the Grayson Gallery. She blogs here about creative life and creates in Studio BE overlooking the Ohio River. Her work in progress is a memoir about the secret life of objects.

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