It seems like a long time since I last saw the moon and I was quite surprised to see it early this evening, rising above the houses on the other side of our road.
Checking with reference 1, I find that it was indeed there, 76% gibbous, SSE. Perhaps 7° above the horizon. With my own guesses about both direction and altitude generally being pretty wide of the mark.
While checking with my own records, I find that I last saw the moon at noon on the 9th August, when it was an old moon, so not so long ago at all. Memory playing tricks again.
Furthermore, I had thought that 'gibbous' was a term properly used of a waxing moon. A thought which is not allowed by Webster's. I shall check with OED in the morning.
PS: now checked. Gibbous means between a half circle and a full circle, a convex object, once used to describe the shapes of things other than moons, in any case without regard to whether they are waxing or waning. OED thus agrees with Webster's. And while crescent is indeed growing in its origins, think 'croître' in French or 'crescendo' in Italian, it too is now used to describe shape rather than direction of travel. That said, horns left is waxing and horns right is waning. Which can be seen, after a fashion, in the waxing gibbous moon we started with.
References
Reference 1: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/uk/epsom.
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