Monday Musings

  Beauregard sweet potatoes 🍠, Yukon Gold potatoes 🥔; Tomatoes 🍅: San Marzano paste, Marvel Stripe, Cherokee Purple, and Chocolate sprinkles (cherry); Peppers: Giant Marciano Red (still green), Blonde Belle, Sweet banana, and Jalapeños. The tomatoes and peppers are still blosssoming and producing their fruits. The potatoes have all been dug and laid out to cure. How did your garden grow?

  I have an upcoming surprise for my readers. Taking a moment away from my work to alert you. Have I piqued your curiosity? Announcements forthcoming on my websites: JL Huffman and JdArcRavenPresS Follow the author on Twitter @JoanHuffmanMD

Tonight, September 20th, at 7:54 Eastern Time, the moon will reach peak illumination. You can observe the moon ascend soon after sunset in the southeastern sky. The Harvest Moon is the full Moon in the Northern Hemisphere that occurs nearest to the fall equinox (two weeks before or two weeks after). This year the fall equinox takes place on September 23rd. Most years, this will happen in September, except every three years, it will occur in October. The timing depends on how the  astronomical  calendar correlates with the  lunar cycle . Why is thi s  specific full Moon called the Harvest Moon? The name originated in European and Chinese cultures and with Native American and Colonial American peoples. Usually, the full moon rises around sunset and then 50 minutes later each day. However, near the autumnal equinox, it rises during twilight and only 20 to 25 minutes later daily (10 to 20 minutes later in latitudes farther north) for several days before and after the full Moon. This effect

  After the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the US government and FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, designated September as National Preparedness Month. They set aside this time to remind citizens to prepare to respond to take care of themselves in the event of a natural hazard or man-made disaster, whether local, regional, or national. FEMA recommends that every family do three key things:  “get an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan and to be informed about the different types of emergencies that could occur and the appropriate responses.” A host of   varied  Incidents Could Create a Disaster : an active shooter, an avalanche, a cyberattack, an earthquake, extreme heat, a flood, a hurricane, a landslide, a novel pandemic, a nuclear explosion, a power outage, a thunderstorm/lightning or hail, a tornado, a tsunami, a volcano, a wildfire, or a winter storm. Each of these hazards could create a life-threatening situation. Learn which is more likely in your spec

Today is Labor Day, a day of rest, a reward for hard-working laborers. Many spend a last summer day at the beach or picnic with family and friends. But for others it's a perfect time to settle into a comfortable chair with a book, to get lost in another world. If I'm immersed in a book, one more page can easily turn into one more chapter, and then, another, as the hands of the clock spin past minutes and hours. What are you reading today? Have you read Almanac: The Four Seasons ? Winter and spring have passed, summer is waning, and fall is imminent. Come take a journey through the seasons, via my poetry book, on National Read A Book Day. Author JL Huffman

 I challenge you to be the first to buy Almanac: The Four Seasons in September. Game on!

Thanks, David McMurray (editor), for including another one of my haiku in the Japanese newspaper, The Asahi Shimbun, haiku column -- The Asahi Haikuist Network . JL Huffman prepared a cool drink to cheer the forward, backward, and even upside-down flight of tiny birds in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. nectar feeder hummingbird sweet tea