June 12-18, 2017

 

The garden is fragrant everywhere; In its lily-bugles the gold bee sups, And butterflies flutter on winglets fair Round the tremulous meadow buttercups.

-Munkittrick

Moon time: The Strawberry and Raspberry Moon wanes throughout the week, entering its final quarter at 6:33 a.m. on June 17. Rising after dark and setting after sunrise, this moon will brighten the post-midnight sky.

Sun time: The midpoint of the solar year, the day on which the sun reaches as high in the sky as it will ever go, occurs on June 20 at 11:24 p.m., entering the middle summer sign of Cancer at the same time. Between June 19-23, the sun holds steady at its solstice declination of 23 degrees, 26 minutes, and the day’s length remains virtually unchanged.

Planet time: Jupiter, traveling deep into the western sky in the evening, disappears with Virgo after midnight. Moving forward into Ophiuchus, Saturn rises after sunset and moves across the sky throughout the night.

Star time: Early risers see the sky the

way it will look in late September: the

Milky Way overhead, the Great Square

covering most of the southeast, huge Cygnus the swan shifting west, following bright Vega. June’s Corona Borealis will be setting now and the first sign of winter, Aldebaran, of the constellation Taurus, will have just emerged in the northeast.

Between June 15-19, average temperatures

 limb their final degrees throughout the nation, reaching their summer peak near solstice.

The June 23 high-pressure system is typically cool and dry, and it is often followed

by some of the sunniest days of all the year. As the next June front approaches, the benign effects of the June 23 system can be expected to give way to storms.

Zeitgebers (events in nature that tell the time of year): As early summer deepens, the days are the longest of the year, and mulberries and black raspberries are sweetest. Milkweed beetles look for milkweed flowers on the longest days; giant cecropia moths emerge.

The first monarch butterfly caterpillarseat the carrot tops. This year’s ducklings

and goslings are nearly full-grown.

Damselflies and daddy longlegs are everywherein brambles along the rivers  when mulberries and black raspberries

come in. Mosquitoes, chiggers and tics have reached their summer strength in the deep woods. Long, black cricket hunters hunt crickets in the garden.

Two out of three parsnips, angelicas and hemlocks are going to seed. Multiflora roses and Japanese honeysuckles are dropping petals, and wingstem and tall coneflower stalks are 5 feet high and 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 yuccas, Deptford pink and first great mullein come into bloom.

 

As summer heat builds up, watch for screw worm and blow fly eggs in sores or dung locks on your livestock.

Timely clipping, shearing and dipping can help keep your animals from these pests, as well as from ticks, lice and scab mites. Pick summer blueberries as they darken this month. (Very often, berries are fattest at full and new moon.) But don’t forget the wild mulberry and black raspberry crops. In the lawn, chinch bugs hatch; be sure to water heavily to counteract their damage. In your trees, look for tent caterpillars.

Marketing time: Father’s Day is June 18, and halal sales of lamb and chevon peak now at the approach the feast of Idal-Fitir, the feast of the breaking of the Ramadan fast on June 25.

 

On the one hand, you body is telling you to take advantage of the good weather in order to put up supplies and get ready for the cold weather. What you really want to do, however, is to go fishing, swim, read a good book in the sun or just sit on the porch and watch the garden.

That is the difficult part of summer; mixed messages. But if you are aware your instincts naturally go both ways, you can pamper both. Work a little harder. Play or rest a little more, too. Try to keep it all in balance.

Creature time (for fishing, hunting, feeding, bird watching): As the moon wanes through its third quarter, it will be overhead in the early hours of the morning. Get up as early as you can and stay on the water until the sun gets hot. Fishing should improve at the approach of the June 15 and 23 cool fronts; look for fish to avoid your bait a day after the fronts come through. On the sunniest days, identify butterflies and bees. Count fireflies in the yard after dark.