In celebration of August's Blue Moon, we went for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway after sunset to look for the full moon. There was a good deal of cloud cover yet we did manage to catch a glimpse of the moon peeking through the clouds. It was very dark up on the Parkway. I did snap a few fuzzy photos to help me remember the scene for sketching later.
An August ritual in our Southern mountains is to collect beans in a jar, one for every fog in August. Local weather folklore says that for every fog in August there will be a snowfall that coming winter. Every August we collect beans in a jar. And remove a bean every time there is measurable snowfall that winter. Taking into account that weather conditions can vary widely depending on what side of a ridge you are on, or your elevation, or even if you are in the Eastern or Western part of the county, and all of these factors put together, our bean count from observation from our house, has always been very close to the measurable snowfalls we see in winter. By the 30th of August there were 8 beans in our jar. But then we had a fog later that day. And again on the morning of the 31st. So I was a little too eager to declare a final bean count this year, hoping, I suppose, for not too many snowy days this coming winter.
