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Summer serves up the Strawberry Moon!

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With Wimbledon just around the corner the great British strawberry is about to get its annual fortnight in the spotlight, and as a taster we get to enjoy a full moon known as the Strawberry Moon.

Image source, Yvette - Captured Image/Weather Watchers
Image caption,

Yvette captured last year's full moon as it rose over Hastings, East Sussex

Naming full moons was a method used by Native Americans to keep track of time through the year.

In April we witnessed the Pink Moon named after a Native American wildflower, and in May the Flower Moon marked the widespread blooms of full-blown spring.

Now it's time to get our mouths watering for the Strawberry Moon. June's full moon celebrates the ripening of wild strawberries, the more rugged cousins of the type served with cream at Wimbledon.

Image source, ziggy101/Weather Watchers
Image caption,

"The Strawberry Moon rising at dusk over the Portsmouth skyline". Photo by ziggy101

After all this build up it has to be said this year's Strawberry Moon will be a little subdued. It loses out to the sun due to its peak being around an hour after sunrise (05:53 BST) on 28th June.

Now as much as the British summer is a celebration of our beloved strawberries (by the way, according to Wikipedia the garden strawberry was first bred in France - quelle horreur!) there are other fruits out there and it's perhaps unfair of the strawberry to hog the limelight every year.

Maybe it's time to spread the full moon fruit love. I, for one, won't be silenced until we've marvelled at the glory of the Gooseberry Moon!