Of Moons and Elephants

As some of you may know, I have been photographing the full moon quite avidly over the past couple of years. It all started when I noticed a fabulous full moon rising as I drove home after my late husband's funeral in April 2013.........so I stopped and took a photograph of it, driven by some compulsion I didn't quite understand, to do so. The next month, there it was again, visible in a clear sky. I might add, that in Tasmania, given that we have a lot of "weather", the full moon is often not visible because of cloud. But astoundingly, for 23 months I have been able to photograph the full moon clearly visible each and every time. It is quite unbelievable to me that I have been able to do so. There have been eclipses and "blood moons", enormous orange harvest moons and she is differently beautiful each time. I have become very moon-aware.

A few nights ago, I recorded the Twenty-third Moon. Next month will be the twenty-fourth......two years of full moons. If she is visible next month, I will take the last of these photographs - I think they have served some arcane purpose and I probably will have got something out of my system - I'm not actually sure quite what!

The different moods of the twenty-third moon.

Back to more down-to-earth matters:  a bit over a year ago, I worked out how to knit a little elephant using four needles and knitting in the round - I wrote down the bare instructions in a kind of knitters' shorthand, then promptly mislaid them. Recently, I found them again, so I knitted up another little elephant. This time I positioned him on all fours instead of with "arms" and legs like a teddy-bear. I've had a few requests to offer this as a pattern, so that means knitting another one and taking progress photos. I will then be able to offer this little elephant as a downloadable PDF pattern in my Etsy store (www.susiemcmahon.etsy.com). Needless to say, I find knitted toys so very comforting and such FUN to make. 

I have a few other ideas for PDF tutorials for my store that I plan to work on in the next few months.

The knitting pattern - found!

Elephant in progress

Finished!

On my hand , to show scale.