It is almost a wrap on 2013. Like this year, winter’s chill is part of most New Year celebrations in the Adirondacks. One can almost always count on cold and snow and plenty of wintry outdoor activities, or serious indoor time, to kick off the flurry of good intentions.

You can’t always count on Mother Nature’s astronomical cooperation and synchronization with our human-imposed schedules. But this year, man and the stars have aligned to offer the perfect opportunity to plant positive seeds, what some people call New Year’s resolutions. The first new moon of 2014 occurs at 6:14 tomorrow morning, January 1, 2014. As any gardener knows, the best time to sow the seeds of new efforts, resolutions, is when the moon is new. To make things more interesting, tomorrow is the first Super Moon of 2014. A Super Moon is when the moon is closest to the earth. If the moon is a Full Super Moon, as in these Adirondack Super Moon photos, it appears larger than usual. Since this is a New Moon, there is no spectacularly bright moon to observe; tonight is the dark of the moon. Although there is no moonlight and the sky is dark, the magic happens.

Even if you don’t abide the rules of nature and think the moon’s gravitational pull has no effect on us earthlings, and you can somehow ignore the ocean’s tides, I suggest it is worth seriously considering making that resolution this New Year’s Eve.

Have a safe and fun New Year’s Eve…and THINK SNOW!