moon thru flowering quince branches

Long Silences Moon

We  crossed over the midpoint of winter,  though it is still a long way to spring.  For our ancestors this was time for careful stock taking and perhaps rationing the remaining food and fuel.  but at least they knew spring was coming, no mater what the weather looked like. The weather  could trick you into thinking it was spring. but the moon and the stars were constant and could be trusted to correctly mark the passage of time and seasons, in the time before clocks and calenders.

The deep and bitter cold of winter lessens its grip and instead of snow, there is icy rain, that clings to everything and sends tree limbs and power lines crashing to the ground. The landscape sparkles, with its glossy layer of ice, as beautiful as it is dangerous.
The stars and moon  seem so much nearer and clearer at this time of year, the whole universe has drawn in and appears to be sleeping, but that slumber is becoming fitful, roots begin to grow under the protective ground, a few hardy bud begin to swell, Owls have begun there nesting and bear cubs are born, the sweet maple sap will soon be rising, and so will our winter weary spirits.

February Moon names

Ice (Celtic).
Old Moon (Cree).
Gray Moon (Pima).
Wind Moon (Creek).
Winter Moon (Taos).
Nuts Moon (Natchez).
Avunnivik Moon (Inuit).
Geese Moon (Omaha).
Bony Moon (Cherokee).
Purification Moon (Hopi).
Little bud Moon (Kiowa).
Snow Moon (Neo-Pagan).
Lateness Moon (Mohawk).
Shoulder Moon (Wishram).
Rabbit Moon (Potawatomi).
Sucker Moon (Anishnaabe).
Long Dry Moon (Assiniboine).
Little Famine Moon (Choctaw).
Storm Moon (Medieval English).
Sparkling Frost Moon (Arapaho).
Running Fish Moon (Winnebago).
Coyote Frighten Moon (San Juan).
Spruce Tips Moon (Passamaquoddy).
Raccoon Moon, Trees Pop Moon (Sioux).
Hunger Moon : Dark, Storm Moon : Full (Janic).
Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Trapper’s Moon (Algonquin).

Other moon names : Wolf Moon, Wild Moon, Quickening Moon, Solmonath Moon, Chaste Moon, Horning Moon, Red Moon, Big Winter Moon, Cleansing Moon.
~Everything Under the Moon

The whole world seems to have slowed to a crawl, almost as if we are all holding our breath, waiting, waiting here in the growing light of the approaching spring for the first true sign that spring is near, and they we are not being fooled by the weather.  Waiting and listening for the long silence to be broken by the song of the first robins.   The Long Silences Moon, will be my personal name for this moon, and I will  be waiting with you, under the Long Silences Moon.

Clouds of ice???

 

When I first saw this photo I was amazed and confused, I had never seen anything like it , is it real, is it caused by a volcano or tornado or what?  So of course I Googled it.  Looking at it I can understand why people might think it was a portal of some kind or the end of the world.

photo by~Joshua Earth & Space Museum

"How does the hole occur in the clouds ? - the puffy clouds were likely composed of ice crystals and very small super-cooled liquid water droplets. Studies have shown that very small supercooled liquid water droplets can exist well below freezing (as low as -40 degrees (C, or Centrigrade) ). The temperature in the cloud layer was around -24 deg (C) at the time of occurrence. Sometimes...when ice and the supercooled liquid droplets coexist within a cloud...a process occurs whereby ice crystals grow at the expense of the droplets. If the mixed cloud is agitated...the supercooled droplets freeze instantaneously. It is understood through microphysical arguments that water vapor must evaporate from the surrounding supercooled droplets and flow towards the ice crystals. This would start a cycle whereby newly formed ice crystals cause the surrounding droplet to evaporate...resulting in a circular form void of clouds with a mass of crystals in the center. Many photos taken that day seem to represent this process."

explanation by http://www.weathervortex.com/sky-holes.htm

Past halfway

Welcome Imbolc, a farewell to winter,  in the northwoods it is really more like the midpoint. or the "quickening  under the snow", even though this has been one of those rare bare ground winters, it is still makes one feel glad to know that we have crossed the midpoint of winder.
A day to call back the fires of the sun, and to encourage the ever lengthening  days to continue.  And a day for making predictions, and divining the future, empowering the spirit and looking forward
Marking the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, has a very long history.  The ancient Egyptians, celebrated this day as the feasts of Nut, who's birthday is Feb 2, on the Gregorian calendar was the adoptive mother of the sun god Ra.
 The Romans  celebrated the founding of  Rome, at about this time of year.

In Northern England this day is called Wives Feast Day, a day on which the tender of hearth and home is honored, with a meal prepared by her family, and small gifts are exchanged, and hopefully she gets a little extra help with the household chores. It would be easy to learn to like this  celebration. Though it has little spiritual connection with other celebrations, it does honor the home fire, the hearth fire, and the person who tends it.

Most celebrations of this day include fire or candles in some way, Candlemas in the Catholic Church is also called the Presentation( purification) of Mary, a day on which candles are blessed. The candles used in the blessing of throats on Feb 3, St Blase Day, are often wrapped with a red ribbon to signify that he was a martyr.  I cannot help but wonder if this was done at least in part because the days were lengthening and the improving weather was causing folks to venture out to exchange not only news, and gossip, but germs with their neighbors.

Then there is the groundhog, and Groundhog Day, or Hedgehog Day.  A day with bonfires and celebrating, plenty of libations and of course the weather prediction, that all of us winter wear  folks are waiting for. "If Candlemas be bright and clear," but this year it is dark and snowy, so the only way that Ole Phil could have cast a shadow was using the lights of the many news men and revelers who gather on Gobblers Knob anxiously awaiting his prediction.

In those time before clocks and calendars became commonplace, many crops and lives where lost before time was reckoned by the position of the stars, crops failed because they were planted to early or to late and people starved  and like their crops sometimes froze.  Weather may lull someone into believing that the seasons have changed.  The stars, which were easier to see them because of the absence of outdoor lighting, except for bonfires, were a constant.  A reliable constant.