By WILLIAM FELKER
Poor Will's Almanack Nov. 9-15, 2015 I would be so sensitive to Nature’s moods – so close that a coming change would make itself known in the look of a house hours or even days in advance – -Charles Burchfield, Journal, December 9, 1917 Lunar phase and lore The Deer Mating Moon, becoming the new Second Spring Moon on Nov. 11 at 12:47 p.m., waxes all week, entering its second phase on Nov. 19 at 1:27 a.m. Rising in the morning and setting the evening, this new moon passes overhead in the early afternoon, encouraging next year’s skunk cabbage and other plants of second spring to push out in the wetlands. The moon favors fishing and scouting for game after lunch this week, especially as the high-pressure systems of Nov. 11 and 16 approach. Lunar position in Scorpio on Nov. 11-12 enhances earliest bedding plant seeding. When the moon passes through Capricorn on Nov. 14-17, it will encourage the late planting of shrubs and trees and the starting of paperwhites and amaryllis bulbs for the holidays. Weather Trends In the entire month of November, 5-6 completely clear days can be expected, 10-11 partly cloudy days and about 13 mostly or completely cloudy ones. Odds are even that most of the warmer days will be cloudy. The sky becomes especially gray after Nov. 14, the solar pivot time when the Midwest darkens until May, and the percentage of sunshine in an average day drops from 60 to 40 percent. A dramatic increase in the number of freezing predawn temperatures starts with the Nov. 11 cold front, lows below 32 degrees growing from a frequency average of 40 up to 70 percent across the nation’s midsection. The natural calendar Nov. 9: Some honeysuckles are losing their leaves, branches full of red berries left behind, bright against the dull brush. Scarlet rose hips and the buds of pussy willows too stand out. Nov. 10: Bedding plant season for 2016 begins now; under tomorrow’s new moon, put in your early bedding plants. Nov. 11: New moon today is expected to intensify the effects of the high-pressure system due near this date. Nov. 12: Signs of the first week of late fall include the emergence of orange berries from climbing bittersweet and euonymus vines, the increased danger from deer at night as rutting season intensifies, the collapse of late sugar maple, river birch, ginkgo and white mulberry foliage, the rusting of beech leaves, the bright flowering of witch hazel and the turning of New England aster leaves to dusky gold and zigzag goldenrod leaves to faded purple. Nov. 13: The average wind speed increases to its winter level throughout the year’s 11th month, and it will remain relatively high until early May. Thunderstorms become rare until February in the northern half of the nation. Nov. 14: New winter grain turns fields bright green again in mild Novembers. Lawns grow back; they can be long and thick beneath the fallen leaves. Garlic mustard, sweet rocket, dock, hemlock and chickweed are waiting for April all across the woodland floor. Nov. 15: The last pansies can still be blooming. A few bees still come out, and moths emerge when the temperatures rise into the 60s (which ordinarily happens just once during this third week of November).
|
