Ending the Year with a Blue Moon

A blue moon has nothing to do with the color of the moon tonight- so don't be disappointed on that account.

A blue moon is a Full Moon that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern. Most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but in addition to those twelve full lunar cycles, each solar calendar year contains an excess of roughly eleven days compared to the lunar year. The extra days accumulate, so that every two or three years (7 times in the 19-year Metonic cycle), there is an extra full moon. The extra moon is called a "blue moon." Different definitions place the "extra" moon at different times.

• In calculating the dates for Lent and Easter, the Clergy identify the Lent Moon. It is thought that historically when the moon's timing was too early, they named an earlier moon as a "betrayer moon" (belewe moon), thus the Lent moon came at its expected time.
• Folklore gave each moon a name according to its time of year. A moon which came too early had no folk name – and was called a blue moon – bringing the correct seasonal timings for future moons.
• The Farmers' Almanac defined blue moon as an extra full moon that occurred in a season; one season was normally three full moons. If a season had four full moons, then the third full moon was named a blue moon.
• Recent popular usage defined a blue moon as the second full moon in a calendar month, stemming from an interpretation error made in 1946 that was discovered in 1999.^[1] For example, December 31, 2009 would be a blue moon according to this usage.

The term "blue moon" is commonly used metaphorically to describe the rarity of an event, as in the idiomatic expression, "once in a blue moon."

SO ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, WE GET TO HAVE A BLUE MOON PARTY ON NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

ENJOY!

Wistful

Bates Portrait - watercolor

Maybe one day I will find myself looking at it 

not just painting it

Egypt

*sigh*

I was just looking at photos of the Sphinx festival in Cairo, that again I have missed.

This year I really had my hopes up to attend because I got a call from some bank that some CDs my grandfather had bought me back in the 80's were finally mature.

I didn't even know he had done this, he passed away when I was 15.

The first bank rep I talked to said they were for the exact amount that I needed to fly over and participate in the Sphinx Festival.

Well, Grandpa had been to Egypt... surely he wanted me to go, right?

Well, perhaps not... the second bank rep calls to say that the CD amount came to substantially less than the original guy had told me... not even enough for the airfare.

But I had my passport renewed anyway, even paid the express shipping fee

... you know, just to tempt Fate... 

perhaps a third banker would call and triple the amount- hey anything could happen right?

...but it didn't work out.

Unfortunately the second bank rep was the intelligent one that didn't habitually add zeros to the sums written on his computer screen.

Hate it when that happens!

Family Secrets

There is something kind of funny about this painting- shhhh- it's a secret!

The current family consists of mother, father, and two boys.

In mother's arms was a stuffed animal, I used my artistic (con) license to make it look like a baby....

a stuffed animal of the fuzzy green grinch who stole Christmas to be exact.

Why?

Because mother is pregnant with a special new edition...

they are going to find out whether it is a new brother or sister on Christmas day!

New Painting

You gotta feel good about what you do when something like this materializes on a blank white canvas.  I am really happy with how this painting turned out.  It has a lot of layers, motion, three dimensional elements that add real texture- not just suggested texture- it is just fun.

Can't you hear the ziller?

This is a portrait of Zanbaka.

THE versatile dancer.

She writes the most sensational bellydance practice books on the market.

Check out www.zanbaka.com to learn more about her & order her books.

Well worth the investment.

And fortunately, for the Bellydance community- she is writing MORE!!!

Halloween in December

I guess you can never be too prepared, right?