Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each ... In August live on berries ... Be blown by all the winds ... Grow green with spring, yellow and ripe with autumn. Drink of each season’s influence as a vial, a true panacea of all remedies mixed for your special use.

-Henry David Thoreau

 

Moon time: The Cricket and Katydid Moon enters its second phase at 3:13 a.m. on August 29 and becomes full at 2:03 a.m. on Sept. 6. Rising in the afternoon and setting near midnight, this moon moves overhead in the evening.

Sun time: The sun, beginning the month at +8 degrees, 34 minutes, falls quickly to +5 degrees, 37 minutes by Sept. 8, increasing its apparent rate of descent the closer it comes to equinox. Planet time: Moving into Leo, Venus comes up due east before dawn, accompanied by her new consort, Mars.

Star time: By sunrise, Orion has shifted to the center of the heavens. January’s Leo and its brightest star, Regulus (competing now with Venus), have come up in the east and the Great Square is following Hercules into the Ocean.

No major meteor activity is expected until early October.

Weather history suggests that light frost occurs about once every quarter of a century in conjunction with the Sept. 2 front. Most of the time, however, the high-pressure system is more like a summer high than an autumn one.

Early fall comes to most of the nation with the Sept. 8 front, a period during which the Dog Days of summer almost always moderate, fog forms in the early mornings and the cycle of flowering plants comes to a close. Full moon on Sept. 6 is likely to strengthen this weather system.

Zeitgebers: The final tier of wildflowers starts opening throughout the country.

White and violet asters, orange beggarticks and bur marigolds, late field goldenrod and zigzag goldenrod come into bloom, blending with the last of the purple ironweed, yellow sundrops, blue chicory, golden touch-me-nots, showy coneflowers and great blue lobelias.

Squirrels are shredding Osage fruits in the woods. Rose of Sharon has suddenly lost most of its flowers. Japanese knotweed flowers darken and fall. False boneset begins to lose its brightness along the freeways. Ironweed is now deteriorating quickly, wingstem in its last week.

Leaves accumulate in the backwaters and on sidewalks and paths. Bright patches of scarlet sumac and Virginia creeper mark the fencerows. Some black walnuts and cottonwoods are almost bare. Streaks of gold have appeared on the silver olive bushes.

Soybean leaves are turning gold from Georgia to North Dakota, and pods could be set on almost all of the acreage. Pickles season is usually over by now. Peach picking may be done for the year. Prepare for the seeding of winter barley.

The field corn harvest begins in average years, as almost all the corn is usually in dough. Grapes are being picked as the first asters bloom in the pasture. In a typical year, more than half of the tobacco is cut. The tomato harvest is 70 percent gathered. Potatoes are often 70 percent dug.

Marketing time: Plan breeding your sheep and goats for the Easter market  (April 1-8). Sales typically begin several weeks before the feast day.

Mind and body time: Light depression, sometimes called the September Blues, may follow the major changes taking place in the landscape and in personal or family life. This is back-to-school time for children and parents, and whether you are heading off to class or staying home alone, you may have mixed feelings about the new patterns.

Creature time : The waxing moon is overhead in the evening this week, favoring that time for finding fish. Evening fishing should be even more productive as the barometer falls in advance of the Sept. 2 and 8 cool fronts.

In the garden and on your walks through the woods or countryside, look for the last skipper and blue butterflies, the last Viceroys, Red Admirals and Great Spangled Fritillaries.

In most years, they end their seasons in September. Rose Breasted Grossbeaks and Indigo Buntings are often gone by the end of the week, and almost all types of warblers are on the move.

Getting By

By Norma J. Corbean Ward

Xenia, Ohio

 

During World War II, I married and was left with two small children and expecting another when they drafted my husband. A lot of wives, the “war widows” as we were called, had children to care for all alone.

 

We got a small amount of money from the pay given to our men, but some went to live with relatives because they couldn’t make it on that amount. You had to be careful or someone would steal your ration coupons. Some of the women cashed in their war bonds. I didn’t. I took in washing, ironing, sewing and doing people’s hair in my house. I saved my war bonds and bought the lot my house is now standing on.

 

One day I was at the grocery store and I heard a commotion, people bickering. I saw it was my grandmother being held. In those days you had to bring your own bags for your purchases. Grandma said she dropped the articles in her bag to free her hands to get something else. She didn’t intend to leave without paying.

 

I told the clerk that when my grandfather had a store, he told me you couldn’t accuse anyone of stealing until they went out the door with the merchandise hidden. They let my grandma go, but she never went back to that store again.