Moon cycle: New Moon: 9th December 2026 Full Moon: 24th December 2026 New Moon: 7th January 2027 Winter Solstice It’s December and the days are getting shorter, little by little, as we head towards the winter solstice on the 21st. As a farmer and a primary school gardening teacher, everything I am doing seems to…
Moon cycle: New Moon: 9th November 2026 Full Moon: 24th November 2026 New Moon: 9th December 2026 Traditional names The names we generally use in the northern hemisphere for the different moons are based upon a blend of Native American culture and western European tradition. Indigenous peoples of North America use names evocative of falling…
Moon cycle: New Moon: 10th October 2026 Full Moon: 26th October 2026 New Moon: 9th November 2026 Deer Rutting Moon As the days get shorter in the Northern hemisphere and winter draws ever nearer, many wild animals start to behave differently. Native Americans, whose existence is intertwined with nature more than ours, would celebrate these…
Moon cycle: New Moon: 11th September 2026 Full Moon: 26th September 2026 New Moon: 10th October 2026 Traditionally, the October moon is known in the northern hemisphere as the Hunter’s Moon. This was a time of slaughtering animals and preserving their meats in preparation for the coming winter. Native American names for this moon include…
Before the advent of mechanisation, people needed to have as much time during a day as possible in order to get the harvest in. This was greatly helped by the Harvest Moon because, if the sky was clear, the moonlight would extend the time when work could be done in the fields.
On warm Autumn nights, the sky fills with seeds. The seeds are produced by thistles. They float easily on any updraft. A small breath of air will lift them into the air, where they float through French doors – flung open on a sultry evening – or drift past sausages dripping their fat into a barbecue’s flaring flames.
To the east the moon is rising, over the farmland where the haymaking of high summer gave it its name. Those fields of seeding grass and flowers, their corncrakes, yellow hammers, clouds of sparrows and hunting barn owls are long gone.
We are naming this lunar month the ‘Strawberry Rose Moon’ in recognition of the value of simple, natural food coupled with the importance of peace and harmony, especially between humans and the rest of the natural world.
The May Moon is also called the Flower Moon. This is because many of the spring flowers are at their best at this time of year.
Moon cycle: New Moon: 19th March 2026 Full Moon: 2nd April 2026 New Moon: 17th April 2026 Pink Moon / Egg Moon April’s full moon is known in North America as ‘Pink Moon’ after an early blooming pink wildflower native to parts of the continent – the ‘Creeping phlox’ or ‘Moss phlox’ (Phlox subulate). An…