The Moon of the Changing Season

This is Kylie, out searching for the foxes that live nearby.

Sometimes I have to shake my head and remember I now own a dog park bigger than Sunnybrook, complete with horses, llamas, deer, badgers, foxes, coyotes, eagles, falcons, and many other native dwellers.





Here is the Brindle Prairie Hippo enjoying a swim.


That's Cricket, who is usually not fond of water.











We've had a terrific fall so far -- last week the temps were in the mid to high 20s. I wonder if they still call it Indian Summer, which according to Wikipedia, is so-called after a frost. We haven't had frost yet, so perhaps Indian Summer is yet to come. Apparently Europe had the phrase "Saint Martin's Summer" to denote the same phenomenon, though there is no consensus on the origin of the term Indian Summer, but it seems to have originated after Europe came to North America.



Speaking of evocative names, here are some of the month names from the Oglala found in Black Elk Speaks:

January - the Moon of Frost in the Tepee
February - the Moon of the Dark Red Calf
March - the Moon of the Snowblind
April - the Moon of the Red Grass Appearing
May - the Moon When the Ponies Shed
June - the Moon of Making Fat
July - the Moon When the Cherries are Ripe
August - the Moon When the Cherries Turn Black
September - the Moon when the Calf Grows Hair or the Moon when the Plums are Scarlet
October - the Moon of the Changing Season
November - the Moon of Falling Leaves
December - the Moon of Popping Trees


How much more poetic than our sad Roman names that don't even get the number order right (that's owing to Julius & Augustus of course, bloody Caesars). October is no longer the eighth month, nor is November the ninth, or December the tenth, etc.


By the way, I recommend reading "Black Elk Speaks". It is a document of an almost unknown history, the people and events it depicts have almost vanished. The language is extraordinarily poetic in a way that makes cultivated poetry seem baroque and artificial.



It is one of the shames of mankind that so many cultures have been extinguished without being understood.