Happy 2024 to all.

At last, an interval in the sheet of wet that they call weather. And this allows us to see the moon and stars and night. And what a wonderful moon it is!! In Anglo-Saxon culture, January’s full moon was called the “Moon after Yule”, the ancient winter solstice festival. Also, intriguingly, it was called “wolf moon”. In days of old, when wolves were active in Northern Europe, February was the time for breeding and wolves become very vocal just before this. In addition, wolves are nocturnal animals and are more active at night. In North America and the few areas of Europe where they survive, wolves howl to communicate over long distances. It is their way of letting the pack know where they are and warning intruders to stay away. They actually howl in the direction of the moon, pointing their faces towards the sky, because this upward projection carries the sound further. Whatever you call it, it is the first of several moons of 2024. Watch this space.