This morning was one of those walks when I wished I had my camera. Not so much to capture the view or be able to share it, but to have proof that I wasn’t just dreaming it. The magic of it was such that it was hard to believe it was real.

The full moon was at first covered by a fog of clouds, blurry and golden, hovering over a black, leafless tree.

Then, it rose above the fog, bright white and clear, lighting up the clouds below, illuminating 14 shades of white, blue, and gray.

Later, it disappeared completely behind a bank of thick clouds, with only the faintest glow marking it in the still dark sky.

Then the dawn and clouds hid it entirely, turning the snow a light blue.

At McMurry Ponds, I breathe in how lucky I am to live here. And by here, I don’t just mean Northern Colorado, or even Fort Collins, but this specific spot northwest of the center of town. Walking around the back pond, to the north is the edge of Creekside Garden Center with it’s forest of young trees and barn with peeling white paint where the foxes like to nap, to the south on the other side of the pond is the Poudre River where last week we saw a Blue Heron fly the length of it with a beaver and three ducks swimming below, behind us the sun is rising, turning the treeline orange, and in front to the west, there’s an old white farmhouse with three large Blue Spruce in the yard and the moon sits high above them, with the Foothills, Horsetooth Rock and the Reservoir behind and below it. This is where I live.

Back at the beginning of the trail and the end of our walk, the pale moon sits against a bright blue sky. Goodnight moon, good morning beautiful day.