Why not a moon dial?

Lee AKA Fireraven9
Great woods, you frighten me like cathedrals;
You howl like an organ; and our hearts of misery,
Rooms of eternal mourning where quiver ancient rattles,
Answer the echoes of your from the depths I've come to Thee.

Here is a link that might be useful: Moondials

A reflection pond, round black and mysterious. Glistening white paths in quartz! Pavillion built of heavy round logs limed and hung with gauzy white netting, with large cushions to recline on. The netting/cusions is a summer only thing but there is enough structure to carry it over winter. I'd like some obelisk structure positioned to mark the equinoxes but have not figured that bit out yet. Any suggestions?

Our moon 'corner' is in a brick patio area styled after New Orleans Secret Gardens, wrought iron, brick etc.
We just finished a new pond there today w/ a small fall. It's under the only open area we have
and has a clear east view, so the moon lights that area perfectly.

The ultimate, mirror stepping stones.
I've made tons of stained glass stepping stones and, out of boredom, tried incorporating mirror into some designs.
Fantastic for wandering around the yard at night.

Barb, any chance of you posting some photos?

Only the sun is consistent enough in it's declination to be able to mark the equinoxes and solstices. The equinoxes and solstices are dependent on the movement of the earth around the sun and a solar calendar marking the seasons is possible because of this. There are lunar calendars, but these do not actually mark the seasons and as far as I know there have been no monuments that attempt to make use of the shadows of moonlight to mark long periods of time. Even the mood dial info I posted elsewhere is complicated.
Some scientific info on it ...

http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/moon_ap_per.html (Inconstant Moon: The Moon at Perigee and Apogee)

http://www.ummah.org.uk/ildl/mooncalc.html (Moon Calculator - MoonCalc)

http://www.weathersage.com/forecasts/2002spring/declgraph.htm (WEATHERSAGE: Spring 2002 Declination Graph)

The best link is below ...

Lee AKA Fireraven9
Great woods, you frighten me like cathedrals;
You howl like an organ; and our hearts of misery,
Rooms of eternal mourning where quiver ancient rattles,
Answer the echoes of your from the depths I've come to Thee.
- Charles Baudelaire, Obsession

Here is a link that might be useful: Moon FAQ

I wish I had the technology to share photos henryr10, the only stone pic I have in my (webtv) files would be great to show off but has no mirror stones depicted.

One design was a large Rose, where I used mirror for the petals and green for the stem/leaves.
It's cool enough in the daytime,you can look at the ground to see the colors and movement of clouds and trees. At night they light up, no matter how dark it seems, there's always some light reflecting off the stones.
The 2 mirrored stones I set in the yard are large octagon shaped ones with triangle shaped mirrors covering about 1/2 the surface, with some blue or green strips that make each mirror look like a sailboat.

(There's enough raw cement exposed to provide traction on wet stones, safety first, eh?!)

Fireraven9, thank you for those links, I'll follow up with great interest. Love your signature poem, for 12 years I've lived among 100' Mountain Ash Gums, yes there are those times. There are also times of the mists and deathly quiet when all is still but the ancient dragons breath heaves and groans from "the depths"

Barb OH, You made me remember how my mom used to make wind chimes and use mirrors on them. They would turn round and round on her patio at night and reflect the christmas lights she had strung just for that purpose. Neat! I'll bet your rose is every bit as facinating.

Sunrisegirl, you can make your own wind chimes ... someone from the accouterments or junk forum made a wonderful page about it. See the link below. Mirrors and the like could be added also. Yes, bummble ... there is nothing like the forest. Out trees are 30 to 70 feet, but they are mostly evergreens and have that feel.

Lee AKA Fireraven9
Great woods, you frighten me like cathedrals;
You howl like an organ; and our hearts of misery,
Rooms of eternal mourning where quiver ancient rattles,
Answer the echoes of your from the depths I've come to Thee.
- Charles Baudelaire, Obsession

Here is a link that might be useful: The Wind Chime Page

Hello Barb,
Can you tell me how you made theleadlight stones. It sounds positively fascinating.
Thanks Rosemary

I made mine from scratch (poured the concrete into a form, etc.), but a quicker, easier way is to glue glass onto store-bought stepping stones and grout or 'patch' cement them in.
There are sites and forums dedicated to 'stained glass stepping stones' with directions, it seems that no two people make them exactly the same way (different 'stone' materials, mostly), so you could make it up yourself and it'll probably work.
You could break a mirror, glue the pieces down and grout, or go the whole nine yards with glass cutting and grinding tools, pattern, form, concrete.

Ooh, try this one...

Here is a link that might be useful: cole brother's forum

How about adding candles to your night time areas? I like sitting out on my bench at night with a few tea light candles or votive candles in garden type holders. I had an evening garden party one time and I created a candlelit pathway through the yard to a seating area and ever since then I have used candles in the yard for my nighttime enjoyment.

During the "bug" times I use citronella candles, but most of the time I just set out regular candles. I put them into the smallest terra cotta pots (the seed starter size), I've used those small galvanized watering cans (purchased at Wal-mart in the crafts section), and I also have some candle holders that are made to stick into the ground. I like using those because it gives you another level to add interest.

My neighbors get a kick out of seeing us out in the yard surrounded by candlelite drinking a glass of wine.

I don't have any of these yet, but I've seen some nice lanterns that hold candles too. My trees aren't mature enough yet to hang lanterns from them, but someday I will add that to my yard. For now I just use the things that sit on the ground. BTW~ I place my ground level candle holders on top of some ceramic tiles to keep the container from heating up the ground or the deck too much.

Another candle option is to use an empty wine bottle, fill bottle at least halfway with sand, and then stick a taper candle in it. Be sure to set this on a surface that is ok for wax to drip on because these candles will drip down the sides of the bottle. (Some of you may remember this trend in the late sixties and early seventies.)

Anyway, candles are a fun addition to my evenings outside. The trick is to remember to blow them out before going inside at night.:-)

weaserbug,
I love the idea of candles in the garden, but I'd be a bit careful using terra cotta pots as holders. When my kids were little , we made some candles one winter and used a terra cotta pot as a holder. When we burned the candle, the melted wax seeped into the clay and, you guessed it, the whole thing caught fire! It didn't do any harm, but it sure caused a little excitement :-). Anyway, once burned, twice shy in my case!
Thanks to everone who has provided links for this thread - there are enough projects here to keep me busy for a long time!

If you want to hang a candle, how about a shepards hook? I have a copper lantern that holds 6 votive candles. looks great on a black hook.
Just an idea.
Cindy

We like flames at night. Bigger flames than candles. I found some absolutely gorgeous blue iridescent teardrop shaped glass 'tiki' type torches. The flame is 5 inches tall on each one, and we have them scattered throughout the yard. We also light the chimenea at night. Especially now that it is getting cooler, but even in the summer they were nice for effect and deterring mosquitos. The pinion wood does have a wonderful smell.
The garden seems to take on a whole different look at night by flame...
A friend of mine has some twinkling white Christmas lights intertwined in some grapevine she has wrapped all around the inner roof protion of her porch, (like I've seen many restaurants do). This is a real neat look, too.
-Taylor

and here's another- take a ratty old chandelier, cut out the wires, all you need are the arms. spray paint- either black or white look good. wrap some phony ivy- silk or plastic, you can spray paint the plastic- around the arms. or use strings of beads or crystals. either put candles directly in old light sockets, or use those glass votive holders that plug into candle holders. hang low enough from tree or porch not to set fire to it!

Captaindisco's handle gave me a great idea: those old disco balls that we all (admit it now) have in our basement storage rooms would make great accessories to a moon garden. They could be hung, or tucked into a bare spot somewhere between a couple of foliage plants. Big ones, small ones, disco disco duck ones.

I'm digging out mine...
Shelly

I love the idea of a mirror mosaic stepping stone where you could see the moon reflected in it. During the day will the reflecting glass magnify the sun and be a fire hazard?

No worries, it just reflects the light, nothing like a magnifying glass.
The mirror reflects the light from the sky at night, regardless wether the moon is visible, there always seems to be enough light to make the stones visible againsed the pitch black of the ground.

I've also seen something else cool they do in the rain, if they're near an overhang like a patio cover, you get a 'moving water' like reflection overhead.

{{gwi:1049618}}
Hi! If you don't have a disco-ball hanging around, you can build your own. This one is mirror pieces glued to an old bowling ball and grouted.
It really does seem to catch and reflect every bit of light at night. (lol, and can be near blinding on a sunny day!)

LISA

I am so happy I stumbled upon this site! I love the ideas of mirror pieces in stepping stones. And what a cool mirror ball, Lisa! I want to put some rocks in my moon garden. I have a few chunks of rose quartz, but might save those for a different area outside. I'm not sure yet. And I like fairies and will probably put a few fairy figurines in my moon garden. I like the idea of candlelight and lanterns too. The chandelier idea was really cool too! I will hit the yard sales and flea markets this year.

I made a 3 foot lighthouse and painted it white. There is a 4 foot round pond that shows nicely in moonlight. The favorite is a wagon side panel with two old large wooden wheels. I painted it a lite gray so it shows up most nights. All my paths are light colored concrete. I like to make over sized things that are easy to make out in moomlight.

i love you all.

and your creative ideas