We usually have Robins here right through the winter, but haven't seen any yet. They're usually eating the berries on the mountain ash. Another bird which usually turns up about now is the Varied Thrush, haven't seen him or his lady so far. Loads of Towhees, Chickadees, Sparrows, Juncos, a few Bushtits, Pine Siskins, Woodpeckers and DH saw a new to us bird, can't remember the name. C, you can't know how much I'd like to be swinging or rocking on your porch right now, More often than not you'll find me warming my backside in front of the fire these days. A

Wow, that's gorgeous, what a color!

Started untangling pole bean vines today ... started to rain after lunch, I went in, after while rain stopped, I wondered about continuing, with somewhat of a distaste for messing with wet vines ... then it started raining again and has been, heavily, most of the afternoon. Calgary had a couple of inches of snow ... and, as the leaves haven't fallen, many branches broken and thousands of homes without electricity. o j

To Schoolhouse: Good news! If you live one more year, you can view the Harvest Moon again. There is a Harvest Moon every year. It is the full moon occurring nearest to the September equinox which is around Sept. 22. About 3 out of 4 Harvest Moons appear in September; About 1 in 4 appears in October. This year's harvest Moon is smaller than others since the moon is at its apogee ( its farthest distance from earth.) The moon's orbit is elliptical, not circular. It can be shown mathematically that an elliptical orbit is stable whereas a circular one is not. If a body in a circular orbit is perturbed, its orbit will change to an ellipse and will not return to a circular one. If a body is in an elliptical orbit and gets perturbed, it merely changes the shape of the ellipse as determined by the change in momentum of the orbiting body.