May 29-June 4, 2017

 

Changes in the weather transform the very feel of the world’s presence, altering the medium of awareness in a manner that affects every breathing being in our vicinity … Although it rarely occupies our full attention, the weather is always evident on the periphery of that attention, an ever-present reminder that the reality we inhabit is ultimately beyond our human control.

-David Abram

Moon time: The Strawberry and Raspberry Moon waxes throughout the week, entering its second quarter on June 1 at 7:42 a.m. Rising near midday, setting early in the morning, the second-quarter moon is overhead in the evening.

Sun time: By the end of the first week of June, the sun has reached a declination of 22 degrees, 4 minutes. How close to solstice is that? Well, solstice declination is 23 degrees, 26 minutes.

Planet time: Moving retrograde into Aries, Venus keeps its dominant morning place in the eastern sky, reaching its greatest brilliance of the year on June 3.

Star time: Now Lira lies in the center of the southern horizon after dark, announcing the full bloom of early day lilies. In the west, Leo follows Cancer into the sunset.

Capella hugs the northern horizon below Camelopardalis and the Lynx. Arcturus and Bootes and the Corona Borealis are overhead, and the Milky Way sweeps up from the east, carrying with it all the stars of August.

The June 2 front can bring a light freeze along the Canadian border and at higher elevations of the mountains, but the rest of the country is typically safe by this time in the year.

The low-pressure system that accompanies the June 6 front initiates a fourday period during which there is an increased

chance for tornadoes and flash floods. Even after this front passes to the east, storms strike four years in 10.

Part of the reason for the rise in the risk for severe weather is the increase in the percentage of afternoons in the 80s and 90s almost everywhere in the continental United States.

Not long after peonies come in and the exotic flowers of the yellow poplar open, just past the prime of poppies, the last leaves of the canopy cover the land. When the high foliage is complete, then the wild multiflora roses and the domestic tea roses bloom.

The last Osage and black walnut flowers fall, clustered snakeroot hangs with pollen in the shade and parsnips and goat’s beard and sweet clovers take over the roadsides. Rare swamp valerian blossoms by the water, and common timothy pushes up from its sheaths in all the alleyways.

Miami mist, pink yarrow, yellow moneywort, silver lamb’s ear and the rough Canadian thistle bloom. Wild onions and domestic garlic get their seed bulbs. Poison ivy and tiger lilies and catalpas are budding.

Daisies, golden Alexander, groundsel, sweet rocket and common fleabane still hold in the pastures, but garlic mustard and ragwort are almost gone.

The bright violet heads of chives droop and decay. Tall buttercups recede into the wetlands. Petals of mock orange, honeysuckle, scarlet pyrethrum, blue lupine and Dutch iris fall to the garden floor.

The columbines come apart as astilbe reddens. Nettles and grasses tangle with catchweed. July’s wild petunia foliage is a foot tall. Giant yucca plants send up their firm stalks not only in Kentucky but also deep in the Caribbean.

When goslings leave the nest, mulberry season peaks, and when you see the first monarch butterfly, watch for young coyotes to come after your chickens and new lambs and kids. When May apples have fruit the size of a cherry and honeysuckle flowers have all come down, look for cucumber beetles to reach the economic threshold on the farm and in the garden.

When fireflies fly at night, chinch bugs hatch in the lawn and powdery mildew becomes a problem in the garden phlox. When yucca plants send up their stalks, young grackles leave their nests and nettles have grown up to your chest. Then, Japanese beetles start to attack roses and ferns. Azalea bark scale eggs hatch, too.

Marketing time: Halal sales of lamb and chevon begin any day now at the approach the feast of Id-al-Fitir, the breaking of the Ramadan fast.

The nature horoscope brings ups and downs this week. As winter moves further into the past, your immune system should be making gains and the number of beneficial T-cells (which help fight viruses and tumors) may increase. Once summer heat builds up, however, the immune system often reverts to near winter levels.

If you depend on creativity for your livelihood or your happiness, you may soon start to experience a summer slump.

Shift to routine and mechanical activities during periods of mental stagnation – the creativity will return, especially at full moon or, at the latest, in the fall.

Creature Time (for fishing, hunting, feeding, bird watching): The moon will be overhead around dusk this week. Have dinner and go fishing, especially as the barometer is dropping before the arrival of the June 6 and 10 cold fronts. Dieting, of course, may be harder at supper time, if you are susceptible to lunar influence.

As you walk the shoreline or take an evening walk, listen for robin vespers, loud chirps and warbles. And be up before dawn to hear the birds singing in your neighborhood.

The Persistent Possum By Eugenia Herrmann Redkey, Ind.

One morning I found a dead possum draped in the entrance of the “cat door” of my garage. I am a wuss when it comes to dead animals, but I managed to get the body on a shovel and I carried it out near a corncrib, hoping a buzzard would find it. I told my tenant about it that evening.

Two mornings later, what do I find but the possum draped in the doorway again. I could not believe my eyes. As it happened, my tenant stopped by, so he picked up the body and took it out to a field. We both laughed, startled that a dead possum would show up for the second time.

However, the next morning, I almost went into total shock; the possum was back, draped in the same position as the day before!

This time, I called the tenant, saying, “You are not going to believe this but …” Here came my now exasperated tenant saying that this time he would bury it. I already had an open hole, so it became an ideal burial plot. His statement was,

“Well, if it comes back this time, it really will be a miracle.”

Our only conclusion is that one of my cats dragged the body to the garage each time. Whether she actually killed it, we will never know. The final irony to the “burial” was that each of my other cats paid their respects by sitting on the grave for a few minutes. Life on a farm …