Blue Moon

Blue Moon: A second full moon that appears during a calendar month.

We decided to take a little excursion Friday night and drove up to a viewpoint to observe July’s blue moon over the Cascades. There had been quite a bit of discussion amongst friends as to what a blue moon means. As it turns out, blue moons are not actually blue, and it is suggested that the word “blue” was substituted for an old English word “belewe.” These moons would have been referred to as “betrayer moons” because they threw off activities following the lunar calendar, like fasting for Lent. 

When we first arrived at the viewpoint, we thought it was a bust with the cloud layer obscuring our
view, but finally we saw a glowing spot start to open up and the moon
rose out of it and came into view. This particular blue moon was red
from all the wildfire haze, and made quite a contrast against the night
sky. 

If we only head off on late night drives up into the mountains once in a blue moon, 

I’ll gladly take that.