View From Casita Colibrí

I’m back in Mill Valley for a month-long holiday visit; loving all the festivities and spending time with family and Bay Area friends. The weather, on the other hand, has been a different story; it’s been gray, rainy, and winter high tides have brought intermittent flooding. I’m definitely no longer acclimated to this damp cold!

However, last night the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and I had iTunes shuffling through hundreds of “moon music” tunes, as I gazed up at the night’s celestial show; a total eclipse of a full moon on the Winter Solstice. It was the first total lunar eclipse to occur on the Winter Solstice since 1638! All was quiet, save for the occasional car heading up Mt. Tamalpais, as La Luna did her disappearing act. She started out big and bright, halo glowing, she then began turning orange, slowly going into hiding, and finally she went missing, not even a sliver of light in sight.

It was especially mystical, amazing, and wonderful because, as the moon was reaching total eclipse, I could hear the unmistakable gravelly voice of Bob Dylan, introducing the song, Mr. Moon ( I have lots of Theme Time Radio Hour music) by a band, in Dylan’s words, “you never heard of them probably, but should have.” The band, Clover, was composed of local guys I went to school (grammar and high school) with here in Mill Valley and… just as Alex Call (writer of 867-5309/Jenny) hit and held the final note, in his falsetto voice, the moon completely disappeared. A perfect moment!

Happy Winter Solstice to all!