Feb. 21-27, 2011
There had been other signs of the turn of the seasons: the faint odor of skunk in the air … And then in the distance could be heard the sound of a flock of blackbirds arriving, a rustling sound like the wind in the leaves of the cottonwood. The next night, the thunder cracked and the first rain of spring fell.
-Paul Gruchow

Lunar phase and lore

The Bluebonnet Moon wanes throughout the week, entering its final quarter Feb. 24 at 6:26 p.m. Starting off the week in Libra, the moon comes into Scorpio on Tuesday, Sagittarius on Thursday, Capricorn on Saturday and Aquarius next Tuesday.

Of all those signs, Capricorn is the most favorable for seeding onions and starting summer bulbs like elephant ears and dahlias in containers. If you have new lambs, lunar lore suggests that Sagittarius and Aquarius will be best for docking tails.

Under the dark moon, treat ash, bittersweet, fir, elm, flowering fruit trees, hawthorn, juniper, lilac, linden, maple, oak, pine, poplar, spruce, sweet gum, tulip tree and willow for scales and mites. Spray trees with dormant oil when temperatures rise into the upper 30s or 40s.

Even though snowdrop winter often arrives in the East on this day, the weak moon should keep it relatively mild.

The best lunar position for angling is expected to take place during the early morning. Since the moon will be overhead at that time, dieters may find it more difficult to avoid pancakes and doughnuts at breakfast, especially as the cold fronts of Feb. 24 and 29 approach.

Weather patterns
Snowdrop winter often arrives on or about Feb. 24, and colder temperatures typically return for up to 72 hours. While 50s and 60s each come 5 percent of the time and 40s are recorded 35-40 percent of the years, highs only in the 20s or 30s occur the remaining 50 percent, and chances for a high in the teens appear for the last time this season.
Snow falls a third of all the years on Feb. 24 and, five years in 10, on Feb. 25. But Feb. 25 is also the last day in early spring that chances for snow get so high.

Daybook
Feb. 21: The moon is 20 days old today and lies in the middle of its third quarter, the lunar quarter during which most lambs and kids are born. Ewes and does bred at the beginning of October may give birth a little early. Be especially careful of abortions in livestock and humans.

Feb. 22: In February’s fourth week, the day’s length reaches 11 hours for the first time since the middle of October, and the rate of lengthening reaches 16 minutes per seven days. The Delta Leonid meteor shower reaches its peak directly overhead in the early morning hours.

Feb. 23: Take cuttings to propagate shrubs, trees and houseplants; experiment with forsythia, pussy willow, hydrangea and spirea. Trim back ornamental grasses.

Feb. 24: By this week of the year, the start of snowdrop season, first pussy willow season, aconite season, crocus season, daffodil budding season and the first dandelion bloom are all a matter of the natural history record from the lower Midwest all the way across Pennsylvania to New York City.

Feb. 25: Only two months remain before Easter. Don’t let the Easter market – one of the major lamb and kid occasions of the year – pass you by. Suckling animals between 20-50 pounds are ideal for late Lenten buyers.

Feb. 26: When you hear mourning doves singing before dawn and the titmouse making its early mating calls, then it is time to check your cattle for anaplasmosis, a dangerous tick-borne disease.

Feb. 27: If you are hungry for spring, take a two-day drive south. Clumps of daffodils are blooming below Nashville, about 300 miles from the Ohio River. Bright, low wheat fields glow near the Alabama-Tennessee border. Between Huntsville and Birmingham, the first flowering plum trees will bring you well into April.

Feb. 28: The days now lengthen at the rate of 60 seconds every 160 minutes. That length on the first of March is about 11 hours and a quarter. Four-and-a-half weeks later, just as the first hepatica is blooming, the time between sunrise and sunset has stretched to more than l2-and-a-half hours.