Wolf Moon

The January moon is known as the Wolf Moon, because the Indians would hear the wolves howling in the cold and snow. This year's Wolf Moon is also the closest the moon will get to the Earth until next year. It was a spectacular moon. I've always been drawn to the moon. During some traumatic events in my late teens, it seemed to be a steadfast beacon in the dark night sky. Or, maybe I was a wolf in a previous life. :-)

Saturday morning, the morning of the full Wolf Moon, I woke about 4:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Despite the early hour and the frigid cold, I decided I might as well get up and take the dogs for their morning walk. The dogs are always ready for a walk, no matter the time or the weather.

I bundled up well, double layers all around, triple socks on my feet and the dogs and I set off. The light from the moon was incredible, it was like a spotlight reflecting off the white carpet of snow. The silvery light glistened off the ice in the trees. It was like a fairy world. I was annoyed, even more than I usually am, by the outside lights left on by the neighbors as the dogs and I trudged up the street. One of the reasons I moved out here was to get rid of city annoyances, such as ambient light which makes it harder to see the stars and enjoy the light of the moon. Don't they know that?! Harrumph!

But, we soon got to end of the road, where it turns to dirt and left the houses behind us. Usually, when it's still dark in the mornings, I don't venture into the woods beyond where the road ends and it's just trails. But, the moon was so bright and magical, I couldn't resist. I did keep the dogs on leash. They will both take off in hot pursuit of any animals we might encounter and this time of the day, deer and coyote are likely to be out.

As we followed the trail through the woods, some movement in the tree canopy above us caught my eye. We had spooked a Great Horned Owl, and it flew to a tree a couple of hundred yards ahead of us on the trail. In the bright moonlight, I could barely make out it's shadowy form in the tree as we approached. Again, it flew off as we neared, but landed in another tree further along the trail. What fun, we had an owl for a guide on this cold winter morning! The dogs were oblivious to our flying companion, it was so silent when it flew, despite it's great size. This continued for a few more minutes until the owl flew off into the woods. I could hear it Hoo-hoo-hooo-hooing in the woods for quite a while after that, sometimes coming closer, sometimes further off. But, I didn't catch sight of it again.

The rest of our moon lit walk was less eventful. Quiet. No one else up. No sound of cars, or dirt bikes, or snow mobiles, or planes. Just the sound of my boots crunching in the snow. As we approached home, the eastern sky was slowly starting to brighten. Just a hint of cold, pale blue over the horizon. As I did fed and hayed the horses and turned them out, the moon was slowly setting in the northwestern sky as the sun slowly rose in the south east. What a perfect start to a winter's day.