What: Singing at the benches by the pond,
When: Saturday, April 12, 2025 @ 7:00PM,
Where: Meet at the main entrance to Mitchell-Scarlett Woods and walk to the pond.
Full Moon Serenade. Moon rise (Pink Moon) is scheduled for 8:22, but whether or not it’s too cloudy to see the moon we’ll sing to its rising. (Working on Song book -suggestions welcome)
Suppose you spend the afternoon putting together a booklet of moon songs in preparation for a Full Moon Serenade and nobody, but your co-leader shows up at the Nature Walk in Mitchell Scarlett Woods. No worries – my Colonial Square neighbor, Sarah Redman, and I had a great time. We waited at the entrance for 15 minutes after the scheduled time then walked down to the pond, not exactly sure where to look for the moon which was predicted to rise a little after 8PM. It was still light as we sat down on the first set of benches to wait. We shared stories of our families – growing up in Detroit (me) and Midland (Sarah), family backgrounds, experiences in nature, politics, Co-op issues etc. As the sky darkened we saw various water birds and tentatively identified wood ducks and a pair of hooded mergansers, wishing we had brought our binoculars. We weren’t in the least bored, but after an hour and dropping temperatures, we decided to move to the eastern most pair of benches on higher ground – still wondering where the moon would emerge.
At that point we took out the song booklet and began to sing our way through the 8 songs in it, starting with a Girl Seoul song called Bed is Too Small for My Tiredness and eventually working through the whole booklet, including Blue Moon, Fly Me to the Moon, Moon River and Moon Shadow. As our voices got louder and more confident, we attracted some attention: Geese flew in from further down the pond, honking loudly. We don’t know, and never will know, whether they were annoyed at our singing or just wanted to join in the fun. They stayed ’til we stopped singing and totally cracked us up!
Once we finished singing, we heard the sounds of frogs coming from all over the pond, but weren’t able to identify them. Overhead we noticed first, a single bat, and later a pair of them circling around the tops of the trees, no doubt snacking on the moths and other flying insects. After nearly two hours, we were getting a bit chilly, despite long underwear, etc., so we decided to get up and start for home. As we turned around to go, we saw the moon rising through the trees behind us. We did our best to photograph it with our cell phones – but managed to get only one or two worth posting.
Nonetheless, both of us walked back to Colonial Square, completely satisfied with our sojourn in the woods. Now that we’ve got the song book, we’ll probably do this again if the weather is right. We hope some of our neighbors and Friends of the Woods folks will join us, but no doubt we’ll have a good time whether you show up or not!
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