Saturday (April 2) was beautiful to begin with. In the afternoon, that beauty became heavenly as a waxing gibbous moon sailed slowly through the blue sky above maple trees flowering in the bright sunlight.
Waxing gibbous moons usually rise after noon to give matinée performances on clear days. As you may know, “waxing” means getting larger; “gibbous,” from the Latin for humpbacked, in this context means a moon that is more than half whole, but not whole (full).
The red maple flowers are impressive now, especially the males with their long stamens that are about to pitch their pollen:
The less spikey female flowers patiently crouch, ready to catch the pollen in their catchers’ mitt stigmas. (Brooklin, Maine)