cranky old dude

This morning's pre-dawn commute home was one of those unexpected, rare, and unforgettable special gifts.

I was aware that I was riding by the light of a full moon, a blue moon at that. After all, I had been out doors working under it for most of the night and had stopped more than once while on the job to star gaze and drink in the beauty of the clear and quiet night.

As I was riding home however, my thoughts were of a much less romantic nature. I took a longer way home than usual and used the peacefull quiet time to let my mind mull over some family financial and health issues. It was while deep in thought and trying to resolve some of those matters in my mind that it appeared.

I stopped dead in my tracks in awe and dis-belief. There, from a part of a trail that I've traversed hundreds of times was the most beautiful sight my old eyes have ever seen. That moon I'd noticed repeatedly through out the night was setting large and orange over an arched stone bridge. The entire scene was being reflected in a small pond in the foreground. The background sky was a deep shade of very dark blue from the lightening effects of the impending sunrise behind me. This was truely the type of scene that would inspire a true artist to paint!

Well, I wasn't thinking about life decisions anymore. No sir, I was just drinking in my surroundings. I did try to capture an image but my camera did not have the low-light capacity needed to get a picture. I have a different camera with me tonight and I'm hoping to get a repeat performance on my ride home in the morning.

I did capture an image of the sun rising over an empty beach a few minutes later, and then even later I was fortunate enough to spy a heron fishing in the river. I was a bit less patient than the heron though as I ended up heading for home and to bed before he actually caught his breakfast.

It was one of those commutes that reminds one what is really important in life. Yesterday was a good day!

donheff

I sat out and watched that blue moon come back up last night for the last time until 2015. I would love to have seen a good picture of your vision.

cranky old dude

Well now that I've learned a bit more Earth Science (the moon is not on a 12ish hour cycle like the sun is...who'd have thunk that? ), I've decided to post the images I captured the other morning after all. I apologize in advance as they are not good quality images.

Here is the best shot I got of the spectacular Moon Set that I witnessed on my ride home. It's hand held to get a view over the top of the cattails and the camera is set at a slow speed, hence the blurry image. The colors are close to actual. You'll have to use your imagination a bit though...




Here is the sunrise over Charlotte Beach about 15 minutes later....




Finally, here is the best image I could get of the heron. I was still dealing with low light down there in the river gorge and only 16x digital zoom....