LAST week we had a real treat with a huge moon hanging in the sky looking cold and icy. Long gone is the glow of the Harvest Moon, though – in November it’s named the Full Beaver Moon, an American title heralding the time to set beaver traps before the swamps freeze simply to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Please note: not a fashion statement, a necessity!
In our part of the world it’s known as the Frosty Moon for obvious reasons. It prompted a reader to ask what is meant by ‘once in a blue moon’. She writes:
“I know it means not very often, like I have a cream cake once in a blue moon or I might see my friend Pat once in a blue moon but what is a blue moon?"
It’s fairly straightforward; simply the rarity of a second full moon to occur in a single calendar month. Then it gets a bit complex with the technical explanation:
‘The average interval between full moons is about 29.5 days, whilst the length of an average month is roughly 30.5 days. This makes it very unlikely that any given month will contain two full moons, though it does sometimes happen. On average, there will be 41 months that have two full moons in every century, so you could say that once in a blue moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.’
All at sea
SOMETHING I am fascinated by is the shipping forecast. I remember years ago doing my deep breathing to Sailing By, the music played before the radio announcer talks us through the weather conditions in sea areas around the coast.
Although all the continuity announcers at Radio Ulster took their turn, June Nightingale put a special twist on the run down. She read it like a chapter from Fifty Shades of Grey!
I bet the fishermen and salt sea sailor men loved it. Her sultry voice rose and fell with innuendo – Fitzroy and Malin took on a new meaning and, as for Bailey, well he was something else!
But where are all these places with strange sounding names? Here’s a map which will put them all in place. Quite good for a Christmas quiz – where is Cromarty and what on Earth is German Bight!
Want an adventure?
I HAD a really great day when I joined friends on the 10.20am train leaving Great Victoria Street for Coleraine, calling at York Gate for me to jump on board, and then half a dozen more stations before arriving at Coleraine an hour and 20 minutes later. A delightful journey.
Day ticket £12.30 return. From there out the station door, straight on to a bus and off to Portstewart. Short journey: jump off, walk down the hill to the Strand and into Harry’s Shack. This is a log cabin, grass on the roof and a big timber-burning stove giving out comforting warmth and that lovely smell of toasted wood.
The Shack seats about 40 and on Tuesday of last week, a beautiful day, it was well filled with young couples – families, older couples and three girls resurrecting their youth and memories – us!
Although mainly a fish restaurant, being a vegetarian most of the time, I was delighted with my panna cotta and toasted vegetables followed by a delicious risotto and then a chocolate sweet with an ice cream topping. All of this plus a glass of white wine cost £24.80.
The other two had two starters so their bill was much less. Adam looked after us – and congratulations to Donal Doherty from Buncrana who has opened this his latest restaurant in a spectacular spot, sitting on the edge of a very boisterous Atlantic, huge waves that would delight any serious surfer.
Back to Coleraine by taxi – £10.80 – on to the comfortable, smooth-running train and home for tea. So easy and, if you happen to have a bus and train pass, cheap as chips. Thank you, Translink.
The A Word
IT MUST surely be beneficial to have a programme like The A Word on television for the next few weeks. The first series last year introduced us to seven-year-old Joe, played by Max Vento, who is now eight. Joe is Autistic, he has strange little habits like opening and closing doors a couple of times before going through, wearing headphones and singing along with pop songs non-stop, challenging his parents to name the tune.
He’s not communicative; he lives in a world of his own. His mother seems slightly ashamed of his condition and very frustrated that she can’t do anything about it and his father is totally supportive and accepts Joe just the way he is while gently trying to coax him to take an interest in everyday life.
They live in the beautiful and remote Lake District where he goes to a local school, hardly typical.
So what is it like to be autistic and live in a bustling town, shops to deal with, roads and traffic, the noise, the rough and tumble of strangers all around? And what about brothers and sisters? Often they are the ones who can best establish a connection.
Of course there are degrees, a spectrum of severity, but all those with autism need not only love but understanding and patience from all of us. How often have you seen a child or young person misbehaving and you think, 'That simply isn’t acceptable behaviour; why is that mother not reprimanding that little or big son or daughter?' It’s not easy as I’m discovering as I talk to parents. More about this next week. The A Word is on BBC, Tuesday, 9pm.
