Blood Moon

Blood Moon April 15th, 2014

Image from Google Images

 Did you see the "Blood Moon" in the wee early morning hours yesterday?  I missed it.

 I fell asleep soundly after a hard day's work.  I should have gone to bed extra early and set my alarm to wake me back up.  To be honest one of my friend's attempted to reach me by phone, but I did not hear that either......anyway, next time.

During this first total lunar eclipse for 2014, the moon took on an eerie blood-red hue as the earth's shadow fell on its face.

The entire  event lasted about three and a half hours. 

  I awoke as usual around 4.30am and saw the moon as it finally emerged from its eclipse.

 

Lunar eclipses occur when the moon is full and passes through part or all of the Earth's shadow. Total lunar eclipses happen when the moon is totally enveloped by Earth's shadow, darkening the face of the moon.

It's called a Blood Moon because during an eclipse, the moon may turn a red/coppery colour as it reflects all the sunrises and sunsets happening around the world. While the moon is in shadow, some light from the sun shines through Earth's atmosphere. Red light (unlike other colors that are blocked and scattered) is better able to penetrate the atmosphere, which creates this "bloody" effect.
“The exact color that the moon appears depends on the amount of dust and clouds in the atmosphere,” according to NASA scientists. “If there are extra particles in the atmosphere, from say a recent volcanic eruption, the moon will appear a darker shade of red.”

This Blood Moon lunar eclipse was the first of four consecutive total lunar eclipses known as a "tetrad" that will appear between April 2014 and September 2015.

 Also in the pre-dawn sky was another celestial object, Mars which was making its closest approach to Earth since 2008, coming within 57.4 million miles (92.4 million km) of our planet.

Thus the Red Planet and the Blood Moon were both visible in this rare event.....never again will we be able to experience this phenomenon in our lives.

I actually viewed Mars in the sky last night with my naked eye, since it's at its brightest in six years.

 

The sun however, not wanting to be outdone will also join the party later this month, from April 28 to April 29, it will turn into a "ring of fire" during an annular eclipse. However, this celestial sight may only be for the viewing pleasure of penguins, since it will only be visible over an uninhabited part of Antarctica. 

The next total lunar eclipse of 2014 will occur on Oct. 8, followed by another on April 8, 2015 and the last total lunar eclipse of the current tetrad on Sept. 28, 2015.

According to NASA, the next time skywatchers will be treated to four consecutive total lunar eclipses will be in the years 2032 to 2033. 

There are many rumours circulating online suggesting that this lunar eclipse tetrad is associated with biblical prophesies of the apocalypse. In particular this April 2014/2015 tetrad eclipse with its four consecutive blood-red moons, each separated by a period of six months which has been attributed to a sign of the coming of the Apocalpse.
In fact eclipse tetrads are not all that rare.
For the 21st century there are nine sets of tetrads in the current pattern of lunar eclipses....so no link to the world about to end.

When October rolls around later this year, I will be ready this time.

I have my trusted telescope all ready and waiting.

 Harry Bayley Observatory

I may even visit the Harry Bayley Observatory to get an even closer view next time....we shall see.

https://www.facebook.com/harrybayleyobservatory

New plants

I have been working on starting some more new plants that will do well in my garden without too much fuss and bother.
I can blame this wave of inspiration totally on my blogger friend Ros over at Missy's Garden who is moving into a new home. She started making cuttings of all her favourite plants from her old garden to take with her to her new garden.  Seeing how well her cuttings were growing, I thought I'd try my "impatient" hand at it as well.
When I visited my friend Joyce's garden a couple of weeks ago, I came away with a few cuttings for my experiment.
Among them were dracaenas and ginger lilies.
I brought them home and got to work.  I cut the tops off of two soda bottles, and stuck the dracaena cuttings in some water to root.

I  faithfully remembered to change the water every two days and I was rewarded with nice strong roots in about 10 days.

 

Dracaena cuttings with lots of new roots

 The ginger lilies started out as tiny suckers from the mother plant.

Disturbing them while they're so tiny can be hazardous so it was best to pot them up as they were.

 They're coming along nicely.

I also decided that I wanted to plant some pink ginger lilies along with the white ones.

Somehow it seems that my pink ginger lilies no longer show their faces in the side garden bed after the rogue heliconias took over.  It was time to give them another try.

Pink ginger lily

The baby pink ginger lilies still attached to the mother plant

I also decided to make some cuttings of a polyscia (ming aralia) plant that I have planted along the inside of the front wall.  I want a nice thick hedge, but it's a slow growing plant, so I will have to fill in the spaces between the ones already planted with baby cuttings.  This will be done as soon as the April showers arrive...I hope they come soon....they're a bit late.

 Polyscias guilfoylei "Victoriae" shrub cuttings.

The leaves of this variety have an ivy-like appearance.

I hope that these extra cuttings will grow at warp speed and fill in all the empty spaces in the hedge.

Knowing my luck, once I'm generating keen interest in their steady growth, they will decide to grow at a snail's pace.

You know what they say, "Watch pot never boil."  I may have to pretend that I don't care what they do, and that way they may just surprise me.

Wish me luck.

Palm Sunday

John 12:13

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel."

Saturday at home

Well, Heavens to Murgatroyd!  (*)
Today was Saturday and I did not venture out this morning.
What was I so busy doing?  Researching new recipes for my upcoming annual Tea Party and Swap.  I like to try new recipes for this event, I know it's not wise to try new recipes for an important event, but it has worked out fine thus far over the years. I'm sure it'll be okay this year too....knock on wood.
After a morning of looking through online food recipes, I realised around 11am that I was quite hungry.  I don't cook on Saturdays, since I'm usually out on the road and it's convenient to grab a snack on the way home.  I was never a Saturday cook anyway, even when I was married.
I was hungry and I wanted a full meal, and it had to be quick.
I decided on a cod fish sauce with kidney beans with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots.
Years ago when the old cooks prepared cod fish (saltfish) stew, they would boil the salted cod to remove some of the salt, and the house would smell fishy for hours.  No longer.
A few years ago, my girlfriend shared a tip with me and I'm passing it on to you.
Place the codfish in a bowl with some water.

 

 Place a paper towel over the bowl and microwave for 5 minutes.
Throw that first set of water out and refill the bowl with another set of water, cover again with another paper towel (the first one may be soaked) and microwave for another 5 minutes.
When done, throw the water off. When fish is cool, tear it into small bite site pieces.

Add fresh herbs like onions, dill, marjoram, thyme, chives, garlic and prepared seasoning. 

 

  Stir together well.

Place a little oil in a big frying pan, and  sauté the well seasoned fish.

Add other spices if desired like paprika, parsley flakes, pepper sauce, a little ketchup and a teaspoon of sugar if so desired.

 As the fish cooks, add a tin of red kidney beans (or any other beans, I sometimes use butter beans or even baked beans) and whatever veggies you may have laying around that need to be used up.  I used another of my packets of bora bora beans I had stored in the freezer.

Sauce is done.

 

 Next I cut some carrots up with my crinkle cutter and lightly steamed them as a side dish.

Cod fish stew served on a bed of mashed potatoes (from the box, don't tell anyone), with a healthy helping of steamed carrots...in about 30 minutes.
Yummy!!!



(*) Heavens to Murgatroyd! = an exclamation of surprise used by Snagglepuss of Yogi Bear fame.
I always thought it was "Heavens to Mercury Troy" when I was a  child.

My friend Geico

My friend Geico who lives up the street is missing.  His mum came over and told Mum that he has wandered away from home.
Geico is way way smaller than I am, and somehow was always managing to escape through his gate and walk all over the neighbourhood.  Sometimes he would stop by outside my gate and I would bark a cheery hello to him.

Mum was very worried about my friend Geico.  She thought she saw him playing with some kids in the village down the hill one evening, but by the time she went to check, he had already ran quickly away and he couldn't be found.
I don't think Geico's Mum had any photos of him to put up "Missing Dog" flyers.
I think that's why Mum has been taking so many photos of me recently, in case I am ever lost.

Any time I find my gate open like when Mum is taking the garbage out, I venture outside and attempt to cross the street and Mum always says "Hey!!"   I hear her loud and clear....I hustle my butt back inside to safety.
Mum doesn't understand that there are lots of new scents to sniff at outside the gate....maybe that's why Geico has gone away.......to travel the world and experience new sights and smells. I really hope he's okay wherever he is.
I know Mum has been praying for his safety.

Every day I keep an eye out for my friend.

I hope Geico makes it back home safe and sound soon.

Yes, it's me Brownie who wrote this post, since Mum is all caught up with a few projects and has been neglecting her blog duties recently.