The Blue Moon Rising

      The moon doesn't make its appearance above our neighbors' rooftop until about 35 minutes after moonrise.  
     Tonight's full moon fits the modern definition of a "blue moon."  That means it's the second full moon within a month.  An older way of defining a "blue moon" notes that it is the third full moon out of four in a season.
     Is it possible to have only only two full moons within three months?  Go to earthsky.org for questions and answers about blue moons and full moons.

Three Hundred and One Years Ago

 I could have announced a tricentennial if only I had started to read this book (for the ... tenth? time) in July of last year.  Instead, I note that today marks three hundred and one years since that fateful day in Thornton Wilder's literary imagination.

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below. ... The bridge seemed to be among the things that last forever: it was unthinkable that it should break.  The moment a Peruvian heard of the accident he signed himself and made a mental calculation as to how recently he had crossed by it and how soon he had intended crossing by it again."

Thornton Wilder,  TheBridge of San Luis Rey

This well-thumbed paperback has a very early review of the book on its first page noting that "THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY has its setting in Peru nearly two centuries ago."

A Summertime Feast for the Eyes

Giovanna Garzoni was a successful artist of the early 17th century.  This is her 'Chinese Porcelain Bowl withCherries.'