May I not serve, then, in Thy garden and in Thy fields and farm, Stirring the soil around the radishes and pulling rhubarb by the fence?

Layering the Latham stems to make new growth for warm sweet berries born two seasons hence?

Setting the tendril feet of runnered plantlets in crumbled, tendered soil within the row? Pausing to know the lilac’s dearness, the gentle petalled rose upon my lips, the lemon balm so sweet on fingertips, and the sharp, wild scent of catnip cornered there.

Or, tractor mounted, turn the vibrant earth warm to the sun in overlapping layers of joy and productivity.

At star shine, crimson clover in stretching, wilting rows, cut at first bloom to hold all good within. Quiet in star glow for tomorrow’s turning to tomorrow’s sun. – Janet Stevens, “Joy”

 

In the Sky

The year’s second Cross-Quarter Day is April 21, and it marks halfway between equinox and solstice. The Sun enters the Late Spring sign of Taurus on that day.

The Lyrid Meteors are active after midnight between Cygnus and Hercules during the second and third week of April, peaking on April 23 and 24. These shooting stars often appear at the rate of 15 to 25 per hour.

This week of the year, the Big Dipper comes as far as possible into the southern sky, and its pointers (the two outside stars of its dipper cup) are positioned almost exactly north-south after dark. Now Cepheus and Cassiopeia, which were nearly overhead in early winter, have moved to the far side of Polaris along the northern horizon.

The Moons of April

April 15: The moon enters its 

second quarter.

April 23: The moon is full.

Weather Trends

In spite of the full moon at the ending of this period, the chances of a high above 50 degrees are 85 percent on almost every day during April’s third quarter, and temperatures above 60 come at least half the time. Highs only in the 20s are rare (just a 5 percent chance on the 17th and 18th), but frost still strikes an average of one night in four. Beginning on the 20th, the chances of an afternoon high in the 70s or 80s jumps from an average of 25 percent way up to 45 percent.

Rain or snow falls an average of 35 percent of the time this week of the year. Beginning on the 16th of the month, a major increase in the average daily amount of sunlight takes place: a rise from early April’s 50/50 chance of Sun or clouds up to a brighter 70 percent chance of clear to partly cloudy conditions.

The Natural Calendar

Grackles settle in to court and mate. Buzzards roost and turkeys gobble. Mallards pair up, and geese nest near parking lots and riverbanks.

The Great Dandelion Bloom is underway throughout the region. In the wetlands, the yellow flowers of ragwort and the white flowers of water cress unfold.

Red-bellied woodpeckers, towhees, catbirds and thrushes sing in the woods.

Countdown to Summer

• One week to morel season

• Two weeks until clover blooms

• Three weeks to the great warbler migration through the Lower Midwest

• Four weeks to the first strawberry pie 

• Five weeks until the first orange daylilies blossom

• Six weeks until roses flower

• Seven weeks until the first mulberries are sweet for picking and cottonwood cotton drifts in the wind.

• Eight weeks until wild black raspberries ripen

• Nine weeks until fledgling robins peep in the bushes

• 10 weeks until cicadas chant in the hot and humid days

In the Field and Garden

The juniper webworm emerges, and eastern tent caterpillars may begin to weave on flowering fruit trees. Spring barley planting time usually comes to a close.

Army worms, slugs, corn borers, flea beetles and leaf hoppers appear in the fields at about the same time that iris buds. Lilac borers bore the lilacs.

Grub worms come to the surface of the lawn when the temperatures begin to reach past 70 degrees. First grasshoppers are born.

Frosts may be over for the season, and average afternoon highs break 60 degrees almost everywhere in the Lower Midwest.

Almanack Classics

Funny But Lucky

A True Story

“When I was 12 years old,” writes Sylvia Basinger, from Bluffton, Ohio, “my uncle and aunt invited me to go along with them to Pennsylvania. I asked my folks, and they said I could.

“This was a great treat for me. It was the first time I left the state of Ohio. When we arrived at our destination, Aunt Stella had an old-fashioned, cook-stove meal waiting for us. We all ate together.

“And then, of course, I looked the outdoors over. My aunt and uncle had a privy, and it was some distance from their house. I went into the outhouse and sat down on the hole.

“Suddenly I heard some pigs grunting real loud underneath me! I jumped up off the toilet seat and saw, to my surprise, two half-grown hogs down below!

“Luckily, I hadn’t been bitten, but I screamed anyway and ran to the house to tell my Aunt Stella what’d happened. She told her husband, but he just said: ‘Oh, I cleaned out the outhouse pit, and I forgot to put back the boards.’

“Those days are gone forever,” comments Sylvia, “but the memory will always remain with me.”

Submit your tales to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 or to wlfelker@gmail.com. He pays $4 for every story used in this column.

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