I rose early this week to gaze upon the August Super Moon, which is also known as the Sturgeon Moon because this particular fish is found in the Great Lakes around this time of the year.
This made me wonder what my fellow Chapelboro residents would name the same orb in our night sky based on what is found in our neck of the woods in August. I posed this question to a fisherman. “Catfish,” he immediately said.
But why limit ourselves to fish? At night, frogs croak their love songs by the pond. The baby deer are running headlong across the streets, apparently unchaperoned.
The neighborhood also boasts pink hydrangeas, purple coneflowers, and blooming butterfly bushes. And the food! August tomatoes are red and ripe. I buy watermelons, peaches, and blueberries from the farmer’s market. Okra comes out of the garden in full baskets, along with more zucchini than you can give away.
Just yesterday I was visiting a friend on his screened porch, and a ruby-throated hummingbird zipped to the feeder. This prompted my buddy to tell me about a Mayan belief that this bird was actually the sun in disguise, trying to court the beautiful moon. The phrase “Hummingbird Moon” does emit a kind of glow, doesn’t it?
As if to confirm this naming, the hummingbird hovered before us.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of “Little Big Moments,” a collection of mini-essays about parenting, and “Tigers, Mice & Strawberries: Poems.” Both titles are available most anywhere books are sold online. Taylor-Troutman lives in Chapel Hill where he serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church and occasionally stumbles upon the wondrous while in search of his next cup of coffee.
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