Once in a blue moon

As I watched the star in the south west [Jupiter I think] shining bright despite the approaching dawn I looked and longed for a moon, to give light in the darkness of the pre-dawn if nothing else. And on Thursday it was there, casting its long shadows, bright enough to expose my horrifically slow running up to Kingscliff but not bright enough to outshine Jupiter.

The moon is amazing, watching it rise above the Moelwyn, falling into the heather, and the bog, on Illkley Moor at least until Martin and I were moved on my armed police [who were looking for someone else]; and so many other times and places. Yet it is 31st December 2009 that remains with me. It was one of my last runs in Purton, I took my usual route around the edges of the village and, as usual, I left before dawn under the light and shadows of the moon and watched its spectacular setting. It was only after I had returned, running into the newly risen sun that I discover that I had been running under a blue moon. A Blue Moon is, under one definition, the thirteenth blue moon in a calendar year, which means that the next blue moon will be 2028. Once indeed... under a blue moon.

It's worth rising at such unearthly hours to see the planets and the sun, the rising and the setting. Tomorrow will be another early start, and yet another attempt to work my way west to east across Hodders Combe. I have so far tried three times and got hopelessly lost. Not that it really possible to get lost. You follow the rivers downstream and get to Holford, upstream and you hit the moor, but I haven't managed to head due east to Holcombe. If it does work it will enable the completion of a run which will make the Quantock Beast look like a fluffy mouse.

It's good to continue the dawn running; it keeps me sane. Time will tell whether I can continue to sustain everything on top of the teaching [wonderful but exhausting], but for the time being it's all good. Once in a blue moon, such opportunities do arise.