A pink April moon

The almost-full moon began rising over the trees last night, soon after the sun had set.  According to the Farmer's Almanac, native Americans called April's full moon "The Full Pink Moon," named after the early-blooming wild pink ground phlox.

Charles-Francois Daubigny (French - Barbizon)  Moon Light On River, 1875

Although it depicts a river in France, this painting is reminiscent of moonlit summer nights in the Abacos.  Percy Bysshe Shelley described the feeling of the night sky so beautifully in this verse from "The Cloud":

"That orbed maiden with white fire laden,

     Whom mortals call the Moon,

Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor

      By the midnight breezes strewn;

And whenever the beat of her unseen feet,

      Which only the angels hear,

May have broken the woof, of my tent's thin roof,

      The stars peep from behind her, and peer;

And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,

       Like a swarm of golden bees...."

On such bright nights, one could wander down the narrow unpaved lane separating our cottage from the Sea of Abaco, lost in the sounds of the ocean sloshing and lapping on the rocky shore, and the wind whispering its secrets through the needles of the casuarina pines.

 On such nights, one should be forgiven for dancing and twirling in the moonlight, all the while humming Cat Steven's "I'm being followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow..."