April 4-10, 2011
Blest, who can unconcern’dly find
Hours, days, and years steal soft away
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet day by day.
-Alexander Pope

Lunar phase and lore

The Morel Mushroom Moon, new on April 3, waxes throughout the week, entering its second quarter at 7:05 a.m. April 11. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this moon is overhead in the middle of the day, encouraging morels to emerge from the ground and dandelions to bloom in your lawn.

Entering Taurus on April 4, Gemini on April 7, Cancer on April 9 and Leo on April 11, this waxing moon will be ideal for planting all vegetables that produce their fruit above the ground. Seeding and setting is especially favored by fertile Taurus and Cancer.

Lunar position overhead at midday will favor angling at that time, particularly as the barometer falls in advance of the cool fronts due on  April 6 and 11. The weak moon throughout the period favors work with livestock and conversations with children, parents and significant others.

Weather patterns

As the cool front of April 6 approaches, the chances for frost briefly diminish, and chances for highs in the 70s or 80s increase dramatically across the country.  Precipitation, however, often puts a stop to field and garden planting.
After the front passes east, the possibility of damage to flowering fruit trees increases. Early daffodils are sometimes frozen by this front and the next. After a brief day or two of sun, skies typically cloud over and rain or sleet falls in preparation for the April 11 high.

Daybook

April 4: The blooming of bright yellow forsythia always announces the settling in of middle spring. This is the time that daffodils and grape hyacinths flower and that wildflower season begins with early violet cress, twinleaf, periwinkle, spring beauty, hepatica and small-flowered bittercress.

Butterflies often seen in the second week of middle spring include azures, cabbage whites, mourning cloaks and Eastern commas.

April 5: The first buckeye, apple and peach trees leaf out in the early days of middle spring. At dusk, the first frogs and toads are singing. Killdeer become common, and woodcocks call near sunset with a nasal-sounding “peent.”
Barn swallows come to the barns, and the first baby barred owl hatches. May apples are emerging from the ground; 10 percent of all tobacco beds are seeded. House wrens migrate.

April 6: Pussy willows yellow with pollen. Twenty percent of oats are in the ground. Baby groundhogs come out of their dens to graze by the roadsides.
April 7: Gardeners plant their early sweet corn and farmers top-dress the winter wheat. In town, the lawn is long enough to cut. Nettles, chicory and leafcup are six to eight inches tall, Asiatic lilies and columbine three to five inches.
Ragwort and garlic mustard are forming clumps; some sweet rockets and money plants are getting ready to send out their flower stalks. Hobblebush is leafing. Toads bask in the sun.

April 8: Asparagus is up in the garden; bumblebees are looking for pollen; toad trillium blooms; the wood thrush is back. The first strawberries flower.
April 9: Japanese knotweed catches up with the rhubarb (just about big enough for a small pie). Water rushes and purple loosestrife, water lilies and pickerel plants have suddenly produced foliage. Small diving water beetles hunt for food.

April 10: Today is the average date for blossoming of dogwood and decorative pears. Daffodils are at their peak.