Moon Shadow Walking and Beech Tree Blight

One of life's great joys for me is to walk on the road under the light of the moon.  A white dog's coat becomes luminescent, and who can resist the appeal of a moon shadow? (Cat Stevens comes to mind now).  Watching them bound down the road (I live on a private road with limited traffic) and into the woods is marvelous to see. 

Ella is a tri-color setter, so she does not have so much white.  But Daisey is mostly white, and now our newest moon shadow walker, Dexter, has enough white to glimmer.  He gets not freedom, so he is attached with a long lead.

The other evening we were walking and the moon, about 3/4 full, was occulted by some dark clouds.  The clouds were fast moving, and the brilliant moon was soon revealed.  It was a reminder of how the clouds of our life sometimes cause us to lose sight of the backdrop of brilliant sunshine or moonlight that always lifts our spirits.

I try go be observant when I'm in the woods with my dogs.  Dexter is nose down kind of guy.  The English Setter girls are bounding (they are unfettered).  While walking to a favorite spot there is blackened debris at the base of a beech tree.  At first, it looked as if there had been a fire that had been stomped out.  I then thought that it might be bird/bat debris, but the coating was too uniform.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that the branches above were infested.  Here's a smallish video on that.  Apparently this is called 'beech blight aphid'.  They were on the lower limbs of the beech trees in the woods.  I do not see them on the beech trees in my front yard.