Miscellanea

Friday 18th December 2009 Bird&Bee's Full Moon News Half Moon Waxing: 24th December 17:36 Blue Moon: 31st December 19:13 Lunar Eclipse: 31st December 19:22 Hello Friend, I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish one and all a Superb Solstice, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will be celebrating the Blue Moon, Eclipse and the coming of the New Year at Lindisfarne, Holy Island. SO, wherever you may be, look out at 19:30 and see if you can see a shadow creeping across the Blue Moon! Mo...

As the ‘Noughties’ draw to a close we can leave behind us the misdemeanors that have occurred in the last 10 years. Some pretty bad decisions have been made on our behalf, around war and civil rights. We must look to the new decade now as a time to learn from those mistakes and forge a new way ahead. What will the new decade be called? Perhaps the ‘Tens’ or the ‘Teens’!

Now and again the wind becomes so extreme around NO13 (our house) that the wind begins to whistle through our keyhole. With every severe gust it manages to make it's way to the back door and produce a shrill note that reminds us of the forces at work outside. It has become a welcoming and familiar sound but also a reminder of extreme weather conditions that seems to have increased over the years. With floods in Cumbria and Scotland this year already and countless hurricanes and floods around the world we...

Firewood - Old Folklore Poem Beechwood fires burn bright & clear,If the logs are kept a year,Chestnut only good they say, If for long, it’s laid away,But Ash new or Ash old, Is fit for Queen with crown of Gold,Birch & Fir logs burn too fast, Blaze up bright and do not last, It is by the Irish said, Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread, Elmwood burns like churchyard Mold, E’en the very flames are cold, But Ash green or Ash Brown, Is fit for Queen with Golden Crown,Poplar gives a bitter Smok...

Bird&Bee’s Moon The Moon has an immense force on us, animals, the seas & oceans of Earth, it fires the imagination and gives light to us in the dark of the night. At a distance of 240,000 miles, the Moon is our nearest heavenly neighbour. Her radius is 1,080 miles compared to our Earth’s radius at 3,960 (a ratio of 3:11). The Moon is not perfectly spherical & consequently the same face is always looking at us. This gives her a ‘Dark Side’ unseen from Earth. The orbital p...