Tea Rose of the August Moons

August, and my balcony tea roses are blooming for a second time this Summer.  I will gaze at their sunlit blooms by day, and after the lavender blue of twilight turns to black, my eyes will look to the night sky, where there'll be two full moons and two eclipses this month!  A lunar eclipse takes place August 7th, and a total solar eclipse occurs on August 21st.  As if that isn't enough of a show, there are shooting stars, too.  August 12th is the peak of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower.

During a lunar eclipse, the sun, earth and moon are aligned, with the earth in the middle.  The earth casts a shadow across the full moon.  The August full moon is known by many names: the Thunder Moon, because of the many thunderstorms during the hot and humid month of August;  the Corn Moon, because the corn crop is at its peak; and the Sturgeon Moon, for the fish caught in the Great Lakes, and other lakes in Eastern Canada and the US. 

The total eclipse of the sun, on the 21st, takes place during a new moon.  Usually, there are twelve new moons a year - one a month.  Some years have thirteen new moons, and this is one of those years.  The 13th new moon is called a Black Moon.  It is extremely rare to have a total solar eclipse during a Black Moon.

Although the eclipse occurs during a new moon,  the action takes place in broad daylight.  The sun, earth and moon are in alignment.  The moon passes between the earth and sun, totally blocking out the sun.  Everything gets dark, the temperature drops, and if you're near water, rising fog and mist could obscure your view.

A total eclipse was last seen in Borneo in 2016, and there'll be another one in Chile in 2019.  It's been nearly one hundred years since a total eclipse crossed the US, which is why there's so much excitement this year.  The best viewing will be along a path between Oregon and South Carolina. We'll be able to see it in Canada, however, it won't be a total eclipse. Vancouver will see about 90 percent of the eclipse, Toronto will see about 75 percent, Quebec City and St. John's will see less than 60 percent.

 

The lack of sunshine this Summer, nearly eclipsed the second flush of  these Chicago Peace roses, which I grow year after year on my balcony.  Not that they endure our harsh Winters, I just go out and buy a new plant each Spring! 

Chicago Peace is a Hybrid Tea Rose.  While the appearance of the rose varies greatly from grower to grower, there are characteristics unique to tea roses.  Like the moon and the sun, the hybrid tea rose rises. The rose has high centred, pointed buds.  Only one per stem.  As the petals unfurl, they form triangular points.  Hybrid tea roses have a tea-like scent. Although, one grower describes his Chicago Peace roses as fragrant, "only if you have a good imagination"! 

August is a great time for watching shooting stars, and movie stars.  The 1956 dramatic comedy, Teahouse of the August Moon, may not be your cup of tea.  The film, about the Americanization of Okinawa, Japan just after World War II, stars Glenn Ford, Marlon Brando, Eddy Albert and Machiko Kyo.  Ford plays, Captain Fisby, ordered to go to a small village to teach democracy, and build a Pentagon shaped school.  The villagers want a teahouse...and geishas.

The August Moon plays a role in this film.  Upon his arrival in the village, Captain Fisby is given a cup as a gift.  The cup is to be filled with the August Moon, representing maturity and wisdom.  Near the end of the film, the geisha, Lotus Blossom, asks Fisby to marry her.  He says she belongs in Okinawa, and he will always remember her, when the August Moon rises.

The film is credited with opening (and immediately closing) a conversation about interracial marriage.  It was made more than sixty years ago.  Even the choice of Brando (wearing two hours worth of makeup to play a Japanese villager), would likely not have been made today.  The movie, based on the Broadway play, based on the novel, was intended to satirize the American military, however, Brando's stereotypical portrayal of the clever Japanese interpretor, is politically incorrect by today's standards, and for many, is excruciating to watch.

On the other hand, film critic Leonard Maltin gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars.  As for tea, they drink a lot of homebrewed sweet potato brandy in that teahouse!

The 2007 film, August Rush is about Evan, an 11 year old orphaned musical prodigy (Freddie Highmore) searching for his birth parents, while his mother, a Julliard trained cellist (Keri "Felicity" Russell), searches for him, and his father, the lead singer in an Irish rock band (Jonathan Rhys "The Tudors" Meyers), searches for her. Their son was concieved one Summer night, under a full moon.

Robin Williams plays Wizard, a frightening, Fagin-like homeless man living in an abandoned theatre, who exploits children, and sees Evan as nothing more than a meal ticket.  He renames him August, and does everything he can to keep anyone from finding the boy - even pretending to be his birth father! It's a tearjerker with a happy ending.

Italian film producer/director Franco Zeffirelli, who's films include The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Romeo and Juliet (1968), and Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), co-wrote and directed a movie based on his autobiography.  Zeffirelli's 1999 film, Tea With Mussolini is about an Italian boy growing up in a circle of British and American women in the years leading up to, and during World War II.  The cast is wonderful:  Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin.  The now 94 year old Zeffirelli's early years were as theatrical and dramatic as his adult life!

I am always amazed with Cher's on screen presence.  She's brilliant in Moonstruck, Canadian director Norman Jewison's 1987 romantic comedy with Nicholas Cage.  Cher plays a widowed 37-year old Italian-American bookkeeper from Brooklyn, who falls in love with her boring fiancee's passionate younger brother. It's funny and charming, fresh and timeless - even after all these years!

Enjoy the last weeks of Summer, whether you're gardening, watching old movies, star gazing, or moonstruck!


Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.