Poor Will's Almanack
By Bill Felker

Aug. 9-15, 2010
In the season of late August star-fall,
When the first crickets crinkled the dark …
-Robert Penn Warren

Lunar phase and lore
The Wild Plum Moon, new Aug. 9 at 11:08 p.m., waxes crescent throughout the week, entering its second quarter on Aug. 16 at 1:14 p.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this moon is at its peak in the afternoon.

Angling is expected to be best with the moon overhead between lunch and suppertime, especially as the barometer drops in advance of the cool front due between Aug. 15-17.

Plan on having lean turkey breast and carrots for your afternoon snack. Hide the powdered sugar doughnuts, because the afternoon moon will make sweets especially appealing. If you are at the fair, do not go near the fried Twinkies (so good!).

As the moon waxes, put in your viola and pansy seeds for spring flowers. Plant your fall peas. Put out cabbage, kale and collard sets. Seed the lawn. Gather up the winter squash plants as their stems dry, leaving about two inches of stem on the fruit; store in a cool, dry location.

The Milky Way brightens the late evening sky in August. Along its wide path, find Sagittarius in the south, the Summer Triangle of Deneb, Altair and Vega in the middle of the heavens, Cassiopeia to the east of the North Star and Perseus rising from the far northern horizon.

Weather patterns
Last week, chances for 90s were steady at about 40 percent per day. Suddenly, those chances are reduced by half, and Aug. 17 is the last day of the year on which a high of 100 degrees is still reasonable to expect. This shift to autumn often goes unnoticed, since highs in the 80s continue to dominate the afternoons.

Daybook
Aug. 9: Horns of the staghorn sumac turn brown. Tree of heaven, locusts, poplars, buckeyes, catalpas and box elders fade in the sun. More than half the corn is usually in dough, all the soybeans have flowered; a fourth of the crop has set pods. And the day’s length falls below 14 hours.

Aug. 10: Along the rivers, bur marigolds, zig-zag goldenrod and broad-leafed swamp goldenrod are budding. Water horehound, willow herb and swamp milkweed are still open. Late summer’s jumpseeds aren’t ready to jump yet. Damselflies still hunt by the water. Cabbage moths still mate.

Aug. 11: Elderberries and wild grapes should now be perfect for juice and wine. Mum-selling time is approaching  for the  mum growers. Pansy time is here for the autumn pansy market.

Aug. 12: Black walnut foliage is thinning. The violet blossoms of Joe Pye weed become gray like the thistle down. Fruit of the bittersweet ripens orange. Spicebush berries redden. Rose pinks and great blue lobelia color the waysides.

Aug. 13: Lunar conditions for pet and livestock care improve as the moon moves toward its second quarter. Animals should be less skittish, slightly easier to approach and work with between now and Aug. 18.

Aug. 14: The weakening moon helps to make this week a good time to take a vacation or spend the afternoon with friends and family. The gentle moon also favors major life decisions and decisions about love or money.

Aug. 15: This is the time that all the spiders in the woods weave their final webs. The katydids, which started to sing last week, now chant through the night. Cicadas fill the afternoons.

Along the freeways, beds of white boneset come into bloom beside June’s blue chicory and silver Queen Anne’s lace. Orange bittersweet berries are mature and ready to pick. In the wetlands of the Southeast, alligators hatch from their eggs and cottonmouth snakes give birth to their young.

Late summer’s landmarks
Markers for the first week of late summer include an increase in the number of spider webs as spiders prepare for winter, the appearance of yellow-jackets in windfall summer apples, the first ragweed pollen and the blooming of August and September sedum. Look for an increase of Judas maples and a faint blush to the tall goldenrod along the backloads.

Ripe wild plums tell you that the second week of late summer has arrived. Also look for dark berries on the spicebush and panicled dogwood, the blooming of wandering virgin’s bower and hickory nuts falling to the paths.

When you see the first blooms of the purple New England asters and the first golden beggar ticks, then you know the third week of the last summer season has begun. Tick trefoil burs stick to your stockings and pants legs.

Buckeyes fall smooth and shiny to the grass. Puffball mushrooms grow in the moist night woods. Birds line the high wires. Long flocks of grackles cross the countryside. The first autumn violets blossom.

And when early fall is just around the corner, violet autumn crocus, join the violets, wild grapes and elderberries ripen and all apple time begins. Farmers start cutting corn for silage. Asters open in the waysides.

Living with the seasons
This is the first major week of a transition period to autumn. Students and parents of students are bracing for the beginning of school. Farmers are tracking the last stages of the corn and soybeans, getting ready for the harvest. Hunters are scouting the woods for signs of game activity.

Gardeners are enjoying the bounty of late summer, canning and freezing the fruits of spring and summer. Sheep and goat owners are getting ready to breed their ewes and does.

Even if the coming of September does not bring you a more intense schedule, your adrenaline may still increase as you remember the excitement of other autumns. Write down some of your memories and send them to the Almanack.

(Please refer to the newspaper for the remaining portion.)