Full Strawberry Moon

- Raymond A. Foss

Today we are welcoming sixth full moon of the year, can you imagine that?  Sixth already, oh my!

Full Strawberry Moon, after midnight June 2, 2015

Already last night the moon was 99% full and lured me outside after midnight to indulge in its beauty for just a little while.  The night was cool but not cold, the air was still and the world around was illuminated brightly.  It was purely magical.  Of course I grabbed a camera and promptly snapped an image.  I'll tell you though, no picture can ever match the beauty of the real thing.

June's full moon is called a Full Strawberry Moon which to us is very much self explanatory these days.  June after all, is the month when the strawberries fruit around world.  What is interesting is that it wasn't always that way.  Today's well known garden variety of strawberry is native to American continents and resulted as an accidental cross of Virginia wild strawberry with Chilean wild strawberry only few centuries ago. In Europe, for example, wild strawberries were not very much known and not even cultivated until 1300s. It is not surprising then, that in Europe June's full moon was called a Full Rose Moon to signal the blooming of roses.

I don't know how about you but strawberries are one of my favourite fruits and I'm waiting anxiously until the ones in my garden reach their right size and turn red. They are still quite young, only 2-3 years old but already last year we had a nice harvest. I'm hoping for the same or more this year.

Namaste