Perigee moon in Boulder, Colorado

Special thanks to my brother Don who sent in his photograph of the full moon rising in Colorado tonight.

This evening in Massachusetts, the sky is black, the cold (5 degrees) makes the stars sparkle. Standing on my front porch shivering, I can see Mars on fire to the left of the moon.

If I squint I can see the familiar "man in the moon." I prefer to see what the Mexicans claim to see; a rabbit, curled up within the circle.

It's happening on Friday night!

BIGGEST FULL MOON OF THE YEAR: This Friday night, if you think the Moon looks unusually big, you're right. It's the biggest full Moon of 2010. Astronomers call it a "perigee Moon," some 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons of the year. (continued below)

Johannes Kepler explained the phenomenon 400 years ago. The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle; it is an ellipse, with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other. Astronomers call the point of closest approach "perigee," and that is where the Moon will be Friday night.

Look around sunset when the Moon is near the eastern horizon. At that time, illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through foreground objects such as buildings and trees. Why not let the "Moon illusion" amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east may seem close enough to touch.

And what's that bright orange star right beside the Moon?

IT'S MARS! In a coincidence of celestial proportions, the Moon and Mars are having close encounters with Earth at the same time. Moreover, the two will spend Friday night gliding across the sky side-by-side. It's a must-see event.


Thanks to Joanne Merriman from Fort Collins, Colorado for the above information. I met Joanne at a retreat in Taos. Check out her website : www.lifeprints.com. She has full moon walks at her labyrinth in Fort Collins. One of these days I'd love to go. Since I have relatives in Boulder, maybe I will!

I took the above photo of the full moon rising in Newport, Oregon while staying with my sister, Ruth, at the Sylvia Beach Hotel.
Every room in this hotel is named after a writer and decorated in the writer's style. Most of all it's a great place to get up early and to sit in the library that looks out over the water and write. For us easterners, to watch the sun set over the water is pretty great, too.

something ordinary

As many of you know, after a lifetime of writing in journals, notebooks and letters to friends and family, I have started leading writing groups for adults. Frankly, most of us would rather water plants and do the dishes than sit down to write alone, even if it is the thing we love to do the most! Writers block is real!

My way of tricking myself into writing is to gather people together to teach. Then I have to do it! I have been leading writing groups for adults for a year now. I have a class at First Parish in Lincoln, one at Carlton Willard Village, a continuing care facility for the elderly in Bedford and a class through the Concord Adult Education program in Concord, Mass. My mission is to empower people who want to write but for a variety of reasons find it hard to do it on their own. As far as I am concerned, writing is a communal act. It is amazing to see people take risks, try new things, read aloud and develop confidence in their own voices. The rest of the group is a strong support in a relatively quiet way.

So today one of the prompts was "something ordinary." Here is what I wrote in ten minutes. It is practice, not a finished piece. That is the thing about my groups. We are "practicing," just as a musician or an athlete must practice. Thinking of our weekly writing this way takes the pressure off having to be amazing every time.


Something Ordinary

A mailbox is ordinary now, but will it soon be extinct? When was the last time you received a personal letter in the mail? I think we got fewer Christmas Cards this year. I can understand it, too. Sending greetings and photos via email takes very little time. There is no need to stand in line at the Post Office to buy stamps to put on the right hand corner of the envelope. There may come a time when a generation of children won't know what a three dimensional "mail box" is. Kind of like an "ice box." We still call a refrigerator by that name, but long gone is the man who carried a block of ice into the kitchen on his back resting on a rubber apron with a huge pair of pliers. As for letters, I will miss the stamps.

For now, what could be more ordinary than a mail box? Ours sits at the bottom of the driveway, rusted now from years of rain and snow. It is situated at a sharp curve at the bottom of a steep hill. Many a car has lost control coming down the icy road and careened into our driveway or into one of the pine trees David transplanted there years ago. This year, during a particularly vehement snow storm, our mailbox took a hit. What is not ordinary is that the person who hit it, braved our driveway and our icy front path to knock on the door. He came to confess. His car had hit our mailbox and he was truly sorry.

I was very touched by this connection between strangers. He didn't offer to do anything about it, but he just came to apologize. So now, when I gingerly open the front of the mailbox to extricate the catalogs and junk mail and as I gently return the post to it's upright position, I think of the nameless person who lost control of his car and took the time to tell us. I never found out what his car looked like after the collision. It think the post took the brunt of it.

Haitian "Veve"

In 2007 I attended The International Folk Art Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Artists traveled from all over the world to show and sell their work. I was especially captivated by the beaded "veve" you see above and the haitian artist who was there to demonstrate. Based on voodoo images, the designs were beautiful and eery and expertly sewed. I share these as I think of all the talented people in Haiti during these challenging times.

Haitian Artists

At a loss for how to respond to the devastation and sadness resulting from the earthquake in Haiti, after making a donation to organizations I know will do good work there (see below), I find myself wanting to revisit the incredible artwork created by Haitian artists. We hear a lot of sad news about Haiti. With reason. Four years ago parts of the island were flattened by hurricanes, now an earthquake. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most people live on two dollars a day. If they are lucky.

The above scarves were made by women of the matenwa woman's art collective on the island of La Gonave in Haiti. Take a look at this web site to see the ingenuity and talent of Haitian artists. It is useful for me to be reminded of the joy and hope they have had in light of the challenges they are all surely facing now.

For years now, I have had a connection with a school and community center on La Gonave, the island off of Port-au- Prince. I know the founders of the school there, and also the founder of the woman's art collective. The philosophy of the school is based on a progressive model, encouraging children to take risks, speak up, have opinions and listen to each other. Up until recently, children were taught in a strict catholic school model involving only memorization and physical punishment. Classes are taught in Creole, the language of the people, rather than in French, the language of the government. Matenwa has partner schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts where students and teachers from here have raised money and traveled to visit the school. The Matenwa Community Learning Center has been a small and growing light in Haiti. Being on a island it has been sheltered from many of the problems on the mainland.

But the survival of the people is closely tied to Port-au-Prince. Not able to grow enough food themselves, the market ladies go to the city weekly, to buy food to sell at the market on La Gonave. Food will be hard to get now. People on the island will surely suffer. I am thinking about this little community today as well as everyone in Haiti.

If you would like to donate to a small organization that will benefit greatly from the smallest gift, you may give to Matenwa (whose fiscal agent is "Beyond Borders" ) or to the Cambridge, Massachusetts based health organization, Partners in Health. Thank you.

today

Last evening, around 9:30, David and I arrived home from having dinner with friends. As I walked up our icy path, I saw an object with a red ribbon wrapped around it placed just outside the front door. Taking a closer look, I realized a friend had been by to deliver her annual Christmas gift to us, a little late this year. There by the door sat a packet of notecards made from a collection of last year's nature photographs and her own hot fudge sauce in a small jar. I scooped them both up, admired the photos and put the jar on the counter, looking forward to that special time when I would taste its contents, and went to bed.

Today I took Calley to Mt Misery field for her favorite run and then went to the grocery store. What are the chances? Brigham's vanilla and coffee ice cream were on sale! I bought a quart of each. At home I brought in wood for the woodstove. Piled it neatly on the hearth.

Dog exercized, check. Groceries bought and put away, check. Wood in, check.
Now to taste the sauce. Heated in the microwave, poured over coffee ice cream, topped with a few frozen raspberries, it did not disappoint!
Soon, Eliza arrived home from work, filled a mug with ice cream and drizzled on the aromatic sauce. Truly a reward for enduring this never-ending cold weather. But the jar is almost empty now.

The hand written label indicated that this sauce was Ben and Jerry's recipe. A quick search on the web and I found it. Although sometimes it's best not to know the ingredients of the things we really love!



Ben & Jerry’s Original Hot Fudge Sauce

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring frequently. Add the cocoa and whisk until it dissolves.

Using a slotted spoon, gradually stir in the sugar (the mixture should be the consistency of wet sand.) Cook over the simmering water, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Gradually stir in the milk and cream. Continue cooking and stirring for one hour, checking the water level in the double boiler and replenishing it when necessary.

When the fudge is completely smooth and the sugar is dissolved, the sauce is ready. Makes one quart. Keeps in the refrigerator for quite some time. Reheat as needed.

What I've Been Up To

Hello Internet / Family / Friends,

I've just returned home from a White Mountain and Vermont new year's week and wanted to write a brief hello to friends and family far and wide. I spent the days leading up to new year's eve in the White Mountains and saw some great friends and did some amazing hiking.

Above is a picture taken at the base of Mt. Washington's Tuckerman Ravine. The temperature at the summit dropped to -70 degrees (yes, Fahrenheit) the previous night, so you can imagine it was still a bit chilly up there that day. We snapped a few pics, marveled at the crystal clear view and how my hair had formed into icicles, and headed back down. Phew.

After roughin' it in the North Country, I headed over to Burlington, VT and surrounded myself with hippies and fireworks on the shores of Lake Champlain to ring in the new year. Those Vermonters sure know how to have a good time.

Now home, I wanted to include a video of a fun piano piece I recently mastered. It's a Scott Joplin rag called "Scott Joplin's New Rag." Not as perfect as I'd like, but here it is anyway.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Eliza