Blue Moon?

July 31, 2015 at Ahalanui - for moonlight swim

A Blue Moon, oddly enough, usually isn't really even blue, although it can be.  Blue Moons happen about every 2.9 years.  There was one in 2009, one for my birthday in 2012, and another just yesterday!!

Usually, however, the "blue moons" are not blue!  They are a glowing pale orange.  There are a couple of reasons that a moon will appear blue; one is related to volcanic activity.

WHAT?  Volcanic activity?!?  Maybe...because we live on Hawaii's Big Island, with active volcanoes, (one of which nearly divided our Pahoa Village in half!) we may get to see a TRULY  TRUE BLUE MOON in 2018 -- when there will be two in the same year!  Forest fires can also produce a refractive condition that can also cause the moon to appear blue.



One of our favorite places to enjoy the full moon is just a few miles away; a short drive down Mango Road, a turn onto the famous and beloved Red Road, to Ahalanui State Park -- a great place for a romantic night swim!  All three of these photos show were taken there -- some have been artfully adapted.  (Of course our other favorite spot for viewing the full moon is from our hot tub on the lanai.  :-)
 
A personal note about my infatuation with the moon follows:  My attraction began years before I discovered that the real name on my real birth certificate was spelled LUNEL!!  Just before I discovered this, however, I had made a series of five consecutive paintings, each symbolically illustrating my own waxing and waning during a difficult period of my life.  Shortly after that, I was invited to participated in my first one-woman exhibit that was entitled "I Sing the Moon." 

(There is a QUOTE that goes here....about the moon that I am looking for....and will insert it when I find it.  LUNEL)

Once in a Blue Moon Bus Stop

It probably looked like this before being bulldozed.

After we bought our house in Leilani Estates, just south of Pahoa Village on the Big Island, and began to meet our neighbors, some colorful history began to emerge.

Sculpture of Rusty Objections

Apparently many years ago there had been squatters on the property, living in an old blue VW van.  But when we moved in there was no evidence of it, so we assumed it must have been pushed over onto the next acre when the land was cleared.  So much of the property was overgrown it was a year or more before we began to find --- parts of an old blue van!

As we have cleared the land and whacked back the edges of the jungle, we found more bus parts!  At first we found springs, door parts, and rusted fenders.  Some we took to the dump, but being an assemblage artist I could not throw all the pieces away and I began a small pile of interesting parts and other rusted things we found.

When we began to build the shed for the generator, and it looked a little like an outhouse, I got the idea to use the old bus parts to decorate it.  Taking a break from all the things that had to be done, I spent the last couple days, cutting, and assembling.  I used old bike gears around the "blue moon" for stars, and created a free standing sculpture on a 4x4" post just to the side.