June 20-26, 2011

The exuberance of June … It began at daybreak with the chirping and chattering of birds close at hand and in widening circles around us. And then, what greater wonder than the rising of the sun? Even the nights, as yet without insect choirs, were alive. Fireflies against the mass of trees were flashing galaxies which repeatedly made and unmade abstract patters of light, voiceless as the stars overhead …
-Harlan Hubbard

Lunar phase and lore
The Mulberry Moon wanes throughout the week, entering its final quarter at 6:48 a.m. June 23, then darkening until it becomes new again on June 30. Rising in the middle of the night and setting in the afternoon, the moon is overhead, its most influential position on tides, fishing and human relations, in the morning hours.

Entering Pisces on June 20, Aries on June 23, Taurus on June 25 and Gemini on June 28, the moon will favor the planting of all root crops, especially under Taurus. Wait until June 30, when the moon enters Cancer, to put in a midsummer planting of greens.

Fishing is favored between dawn and lunchtime this week, especially as the June 23 and 29 weather systems approach. Solstice occurs on June 21 at 1:16 p.m. (EDT). The sun traditionally enters the sign of Cancer at the same time.
Before sunrise, find a taste of autumn as the Pleiades and Taurus lead Orion out of the east. In the north, the Big Dipper lies against the horizon. Due south, the gangly formation of Sculptor lies between Fornax and Piscis Austrinus. In the west, summer’s Cygnus and Aquila dip towards the tree line.
Weather patterns

The June 23 high-pressure system is typically mild, and it is often followed by some of the sunniest and driest days of all the year. Cooler conditions in the 70s or even the 60s are most likely to occur on June 23-24, as the front arrives, but then the afternoons usually warm to the 80s or 90s.
The final weather system of the month is almost always followed by the Corn Tassel Rains, a two-week period of intermittent precipitation that accompanies the Dog Days of middle summer.

Daybook

June 20: Rugosa roses are coming in, accompanied by black-eyed Susans, wild petunias and hobblebush. Staghorns have pushed out on the sumacs. Cattails are almost fully developed throughout the country.

June 21: When raspberries are sweet, then oaks, Osage orange and black walnut trees have set their fruit, long seedpods have formed on the locust trees and the first black walnuts fall to the ground.

June 22: In the longest days, this year’s ducklings and goslings reach adult size. Two out of three parsnips, angelicas and hemlocks are going to seed. Some multiflora roses and Japanese honeysuckles are dropping petals. But wingstem and tall coneflower stalks are five feet high.

Virginia creeper is flowering. Canadian thistles and nodding thistles are at their best. Blackberries have set fruit. The first trumpet vines sport bright red-orange trumpets, and the first Deptford pink and first great mullein have come into bloom.

June 23: The moon’s entry into its final quarter today augurs well for sun and calm meteorological conditions.

June 24: The darkening moon is especially favorable for detasseling corn, beginning the winter wheat harvest, completing the first cut of alfalfa and starting the second cut.

June 25: In city and country gardens, oakleaf and Endless Summer hydrangeas, hollyhocks, mallow, Asiatic lilies, Oriental and day lilies enter full bloom; Russian sage, mid-season hostas, bee balm and gayfeather come into early bloom. The rose of Sharon and the phlox are getting ready to flower. Summer blueberries are being picked along the Great Lakes, and cornfields start tasseling in the nation’s midsection.

June 26: Today is the first day of middle summer, the most stable season of the year. This season contains three to five fronts and lasts from late June through the first week of August. Average temperatures are the highest of the year during most of the period; they start to fall on July 28.