August Moon

You'd be tempted to think we lived in some kind of Paradise...

You'd be right, of course!

Last night, we went out to celebrate the August moon (hey, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever", right?)

We went to the Peking House in Ipsos, because,
a) they have a great balcony to sit on, have dinner and look at the sea, AND,
b) I was craving some good Chinese food. 

It was WIN-WIN all around!

Oh yes, and I managed to get a teensy bit of shopping in before dinner - the sales were SO nice and I really DID need another handbag (score! plus I picked another one up for a gift too!!)

Then we had a leisurely walk to the restaurant, enjoyed a nice icy cold beer, and ordered our dinner.

There are of course no pictures of our beautiful and delicious dinner because I was distracted by the moon!! 

I will tell you though that for a change I ordered something different -Kunbo chicken (Kung Pao)- and it was incredibly good. 

The chef made it with cashews instead of peanuts and it was perfect.  Instead of green peppers (which I often pick out anyway) he used bits of fresh cabbage, and it really worked!  I had noodles (with the chef's special touch) instead of rice, while T had Sweet and Sour chicken - which I tasted- and it was really good.  The chicken had a very light and crunchy batter and the sauce was not too sweet and just spicy enough... very good.

Another delicious meal that did not disappoint. 

We even tried dessert.  T had a plain scoop of vanilla ice cream with a little chocolate sauce on top, while I had a plain scoop of strawberry ice cream with nothing but a spoon (well IN a glass dish). 

Both desserts tasted just right on top of our dinners, and with good fortunes promised from inside the cookies, we left the table quite contented (and in need of a bit of walk!)

It was no hardship to walk along the seaside.  The moon was so bright it was almost like daylight!

There are many names for the full moons.  I looked up a few for the August moon and from my own tradition (that includes Native American) the August moon is called by various different tribes: Red Moon, Green Corn Moon, Lightning Moon, Dog Moon, Sturgeon Moon.  (Sturgeon Moon refers to the fish that are suddenly abundant starting on that night.)

The ancient Irish called the August moon

Aedrini(os) - Bright (or Hot) Month"; cf. Old Irish aed "fire", "heat", Greek αἰθήρ (aithēr) "bright sky, upper air, ether". Ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *aidh- which also gave us Latin aestas "Summer".

 I found another source that referred to the Celt August moon as the Dispute Moon or the Moon of Arbitration.  Somehow that sounded fairly modern Irish to me!

As for me, I think it's just a great looking moon, particularly when it lights up my own backyard. 

I'm sorry the pictures are not clearer, but when you look at the them, consider they were all taken with my little cybershot "point and shoot" camera - which means the sky was REALLY bright and the moon was really lovely!