Trying to See the Earth Shadow

I was able to see the full moon last night for a little bit. This is a pretty big deal for me because a) I am a full moon type of person - waited to be born (3 weeks late) for the full moon and have always cycled with the moon phases according to Mom; b) I love watching the moon change its aspect with the days; and c) we haven't had any sort of clear skies for what feels like years here. It has been a long time of overcast skies without precipitation - what a waste! Last night, though, there were occasional glimpses of the full flower moon (in perigee, by the way)

Anyway, I woke up very early (which is something I do on most full moon days) and decided to try to see the partial eclipse (from my area of the world) which happened this morning. I couldn't. The clouds are back and covered up the entire sky. There was no hint or inkling of anything above us except for clouds. I was a bit disappointed, but also pretty resigned to the fact that I do not get to see many of these types of things because...well...Kansas.

When the last total solar eclipse was visible in the US, I was able to see all of it except for the total part of the total eclipse. Clouds came in for that ten minutes so we were unable to see the corona. Kansas seems to know when to trot out the clouds to obscure our view of most things. Thanks, Kansas!

I always get a thrill when something like an eclipse happens. I love the thought of space and heavenly bodies moving around each other in a gravity dance, and I feel so insignificant when I see planets aligning and the shadow of the earth on our closest universe member - the moon. It is just an exhilarating thought to think of how things are moving around - and that I (or we) are not the center of anything other than our own perspective! I feel humbled when eclipses and full moons happen.

I had a professor once ask us why we had tides in the ocean. We all answered that it was because of the moon, and he asked us how we knew that. Had we ever been on a planet without a moon? (He was a bit of a dink, to tell the truth. Not my favorite person - he gave me creep vibes...) He challenged the thought of gravity as a thing. I wonder whether he actually thought that gravity and the moon were not affected by each other or if it was a thought exercise. I am not sure. I hope the latter, but I have some doubts about that hope...

I was thwarted in my morning quest by cloud cover and a low pressure system that just seems to cycle around where I live, but I have seen an earth shadow before, and I will see it again. 

In the meantime, I had a brainstorm about a journal that I am making for a friend's child. I started a cover yesterday that I just wasn't all that thrilled with, so I started with a fresh idea today. I think I am going to combine a laminated cover, traveler's notebook, and watercolor journal all together into something brand new. I have to do some experimentation with the laminating film this morning, but I think I can make some pockets for the cover that I designed where it can be changed to something different, if they so desire. I will make elastic strings to hold in the signatures that I have made, and that will allow for the journal to be refurbished and used as often as wanted. I hope this will work, but if it doesn't, I still have time to make something else. I don't usually have the same types of pressure in my work - this is a requested theme and particular use journal, so I have some structure to work through. It is an interesting process to make something specific but not entirely specified (do you know what I mean?). So, it is off to the laminator that I go this morning to see if my idea will transfer into reality...

By the way, if you are interested in music about an earth shadow, here is a link that I found to a piece with that very title. Enjoy!