By Bill Felker In February, if the days be clear, The waking bee, still drowsy on the wing, Will guess the opening of another year And blunder out to seek another spring. – Vita Sackville-West The Moon, Planets, Stars and the Sun in the Second Week of Late Winter Mourning doves and cardinals join the chickadees and song sparrows as the morning chorus grows in intensity during the month ahead. The volume and complexity of birdsong creates an audible gauge with which to measure the advance of spring as the Mourning Dove Moon became new at 2:06 a.m. on Feb. 1. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening this Moon passed overhead in the middle of the day, making late morning and lunch time the optimal time for animal activity. When the barometer falls just before the cold fronts of Feb. 3 and 6, creatures often become even more active. By the time the Groundhog Day Thaw is over (in the first week of February), the Sun will have reached more than 30 percent of the way to spring equinox, the day’s length will surpass 10 hours, and average temperatures will start to rise a full degree each week, helping to ward off S.A.D. and the winter blues. The evening sky of February pushes Orion into the west, weakening his winter power. Behind him, Sirius pursues Lepus and Columba. Monoceros, the Unicorn, gallops below Procyon and Canis Minor. Mars moves retrograde from Ophiuchus this month, joining Venus in Sagittarius, both planets dramatic Morning Stars before dawn. Saturn in Capricorn completes the morning procession, while Jupiter remains in Aquarius setting in the far west near sundown until the middle of the month, when it disappears until March and reappears in the morning sky. Weather Trends High-pressure systems are due to cross the country on or around the following dates: February 3, 6, 11, 15, 20, 24 and 27. New moon and lunar perigee will bring snow and ice to the north and the threat of tornadoes to the South during the first days of the month. Sap will start to run, however, and conditions should improve between the 7th and the 13th as lunar apogee and the weakening moon exert less influence on the weather. Full moon on the 16th, however, will bring back Late Winter with a vengeance. Zeitgebers (Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year) February accelerates the movement of spring, often bringing cardinals and mourning doves into full song by the first week of the month. Blue jays bob up and down, calling to their mates with a bell-like call. Wild turkeys flock in the woods, socializing before spring breeding. Sparrows mate in the trees and under eaves. Road kills increase for all small wild mammals. During the mildest winters, the first snowdrops could blossom in protected micro-climates. First crocus, aconite, daffodil and tulip foliage emerge in average years. Sassafras root is now dug before the sap begins to flow. Flies and bees come looking for skunk cabbage when temperatures warm to 50 degrees just before the first cold front of the month comes through. In the Field and Garden Six weeks from now, the hardiest of spring cabbages and kales can be set out. In eight weeks, almost all frost-hardy plants can be put into the ground. Treat ash, bittersweet, fir, elm, flowering fruit trees, hawthorn, juniper, lilac, linden, maple, oak, pine, poplar, spruce, sweet gum, tulip tree and willow for scales and mites. Spray trees when temperatures rise into the upper 30s or 40s. This is the time to separate dahlia and canna lily clumps into single roots and get ready to start them growing for summer. After testing your soil, spread manure or scatter fertilizer. Put phosphate and potash on the pastures. And when pussy willows push out, broadcast red clover in the pastures and grass seed in the lawn. Prepare for Dominican Republic Independence Day on Feb. 27: Areas that have a sizeable population of residents from the Dominican Republic may show an increase in sales of lambs and kids. And then Mardi Gras occurs on March 1, starting the six-week vigil for Easter (April 17 and 24). Mind and Body The likelihood of seasonal stress falls steadily throughout February. Even though clouds usually continue to deprive the human brain of the benefits of sunlight, the increasing length of the day complements the slowly improving temperatures. The S.A.D. Index dips more frequently toward the moderate range when the Moon lies in its weaker phases. The S.A.D. Index (which measures the forces usually attributed to Seasonal Affective Disorder on a scale of 1 to100) declines slowly toward the 60s, foretelling the approach of Early Spring. Take vitamins and drink plenty of liquids in order to offset the effects of the season. This time of year also seems to produce the worst migraine headaches. And since middle and late winter tend to bring the most heart attacks, be especially careful to exercise with moderation and keep to your diet. Almanack Literature “The Thing” by Lou Beard, Shelby, Ohio I was sitting in my office one day and heard this racket coming from under my desk. I got out of there in a hurry, needless to say. It sounded like a varmint of some sort. I told my husband that we had big under the desk behind the filing cabinets. He said, “I was just hearing the wires rubbing against each other.” Well for two weeks, I did not go into the office, even though he checked it out and did not find anything. Time went on, and I was in my sewing room in another part of the house when I heard the same noise, only it sounded much louder. I told my husband again, “There must be a big rat or something in the sewing room.” By this time, he expressed that I must be getting Alzheimer’s for sure. Then one day, I was coming from the bedroom out to the living room and passed by the sewing room. And guess what! In the middle of the floor was a thing, I ran to get my husband with a wild expression on my face and told him there was a thing in the middle of the floor. He looked at me with one another one of those looks. He thought this time I had really flipped out. I said to him, “Hurry and get something or it will be gone.” He got up, but still thought that I was crazy, walked down the hall and sure enough he saw it for the first time. Sitting in the middle of the room on the carpet was a big rat. My husband managed to strike at it, but it got away. He looked everywhere for it, but it managed to hide again. We closed the door so it could not get out of the room and stuffed towels and plastic under the door. The next day, I left the house and told him I would not return until he got that thing. And the next day, he got that little rascal. It was sick from lack of water and eating carpet and Christmas decoration for weeks. Now at last I can go back into the sewing room and the office without any fear. Poor Will’s Almanack pays $5 for stories used in this column. Send your stories to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 Journal: Feb. 2nd 1984: Bees were out today, and the swamp streams were open in the thaw. Skunk cabbage had survived the cold. 1986: Moss growing as logs warm in the longer days. A few peony knuckles, bleeding hearts, rhubarb coming out of the mulch. Blue jay bobbing up and down, calling at 8:15 a.m. in the warm, 38-degree, misty morning. 1997: Leaving for church about 10:50, I came out of the house into the cloudy, mild morning, into a chorus of cardinals, sparrows and starlings. In the background, the first doves of the year. 2009: One blue jay bell call heard at 9, and robins are peeping and chirping all around. 2012: This afternoon on the way out of town, Jeanie and passed a very substantial patch of full-blooming purple snow crocus. 2013: No Groundhog Day Thaw this year. Snow throughout the morning and afternoon, covering the budding aconites, but I saw sparrows dive into a rough mating clutch by the side of Limestone Street. 2016: By 7:45, doves were calling all about, cardinals in the distance. To the west, a blizzard shuts down the Plains. A thunderstorm and hard rain this evening. I slept with the window open so I could listen to the rain. 2018: A fly emerged in the greenhouse this morning, even after last night’s hard cold front and greenhouse temperature at 47 degrees. Ed Oxley reports that he has had snowdrops blooming for weeks. 2019: Louise reported seeing two bluebirds in her yard, “the first ever there.” 2020: In the circle garden, daffodils are up an inch or two. In the front dooryard, snowdrops are up, the white tips showing on some of them. The buds of one Lenten rose are straining to open, losing their green. Poor Will’s Almanack for 2022 is still available Containing the S.A.D. Index, as well as natural history essays for each week of the year, monthly weather reports, some of the best reader stories of all time and a monthly farm and garden calendar. Purchase your copy from Amazon or, for an autographed Almanack, order from www.poorwillsalmanack.com. Or send $22 to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387. ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S SCKRAMBLER In order to estimate your SCKRAMBLER IQ, award yourself 15 points for each word unscrambled, adding a 50-point bonus for getting all of them correct. If you find a typo, add another 15 points to your IQ. PEPRICH CHIPPER RIPLEPC CLIPPER RIPIPSL SLIPPER IDPREP DIPPER PEPRIK KIPPER ILFPEPR FLIPPER REPZIP ZIPPER RRPPEI RIPPER PERPIN NIPPER KISPEPR SKIPPER THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER DZZLAE LEZRAZF ZELFIZR RDZILZE ELZZIRG ZISEZL UELZMZ PUZEZL GELZUZ UNELZZ Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker |
