Happy (belated) 2026 to all readers.
I do apologise but a horrible, debilitating bug robbed all my cranial activity for an entire week. With the return to normality, all the horrors of reality are slowly filtering through, the natural and man-made disasters, the wars and the invasions and fatal illnesses - with all this I realise how lucky we all are to live on this secure and prosperous island with only the promise of a spot of bad weather (Storm Goretti?) to unsettle us. That aside, the beautiful wolf moon, which I wrote about two years ago, has been appearing in the sky every night. I remind readers: "In Anglo-Saxon culture, January’s full moon was called the “Moon after Yule”, the ancient winter solstice festival. Also, 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, the winter solstice is passed, the days are growing longer and the green shoots of spring will appear soon, really and truly. In the meantime, here is a stunning image of the recent moon to greet the year with.
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