By Bill Felker It was only a small woods and had only a few kinds of wild flowers in it – violets, spring- beauties and mayflowers, but then it was a whole forest of delight and mysteries to me. There only in the earliest Spring I went in sugar making time and collected all kinds of twigs to put in water to force them out and thus make Spring come earlier. – Charles Burchfield, Journal The Moon, Sun and Planets The First Week of Middle Spring Goldfinches are transformed with their golden plumage as daffodils flower and the Great Dandelion Bloom moves north across the United States. Following the sun, the Black Capped Chickadee Moon cedes to the Gilded Goldfinch Moon at 1:24 a.m. on April 1. Rising in the morning and setting after dark, this moon passes overhead in the middle of the day, helping to make that time the most favorable for fishing and feeding children, especially as barometer falls before the arrival of the April 2 and April 6 cold fronts. By April 1, the sun reaches a declination of four degrees, 52 minutes, almost 60 percent of the way to summer. The meager inventories of change that characterize equinox now quickly fill with new details each day. The floral and faunal fragments of the season multiply, literally filling in the space of the earth with tangible, visible clockwork. Saturn, in Capricorn, is the earliest of the morning stars this month, preceding Venus and Mars, which have both moved retrograde into Aquarius, and which remain the two prominent morning stars before dawn. Jupiter moves retrograde into Pisces, becoming the last of the major planets to enter the morning sky in April. It can be seen very close to Venus (in conjunction) on the early morning of April 30. Weather Trends The last front of March introduced tornado season to the nation’s midsection, and the likelihood of a thunderstorm is six times greater this week than it was last week. As that front moves east across Pennsylvania, a significant chance of a high in the 80s occurs for the first time this year in the lower Midwest. Rain typically precedes the first high-pressure system of April, and flurries or even major accumulation of snow, make April 3, 4 and 5 some of the wettest and most turbulent days of the month’s first half. Although highs above 60 degrees become common in most of the nation during this period, frost continues to strike tender vegetables and flowers about one night in four. As this April 6 front approaches, the chances of frost briefly diminish, and the possibility of highs in the 70s or 80s increases dramatically across the country. Precipitation, however, often puts a stop to field and garden planting. After the front passes east, the possibility of damage to flowering fruit trees increases. Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year White cabbage butterflies are the surest sign of the collapse of Early Spring. And once you notice the familiar white cabbage butterfly, then you know the more elusive mourning cloak butterflies and the question mark butterflies and the tortoise shell butterflies and the tiny blues are flying, too. When you see cabbage butterflies, then you know that gold finches are turning gold, and that you may soon see ants working on the sidewalk. Catfish have begun spring feeding and breeding. Green-bottle flies have hatched. Termites swarm, looking for new, sweet wood to eat. When cabbage butterflies are out, then soft sprouts of touch-me-nots have emerged in the wetlands and the branches of weeping willow trees are turning pale yellow green as their buds expand. In the city, cornus mas shrubs produce golden blossoms, promising forsythia within a week. When white cabbage butterflies are out, then Middle Spring’s hepatica and violet cress and spring beauties are open. Twinleaf is pushing out in the sanctuary of the woodlands. Toad trillium and Dutchman’s britches are ready to open there, the entire spectrum of wildflowers surging to encounter April. Great blue herons hunt the wetlands. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers pass through the region heading north. Flycatchers and pewees soon reach the Ohio Valley. In the Field and Garden After the first cold wave of April moves east and the moon is waxing, farmers and gardeners throughout the central areas of the United States typically plant their corn, unless the ground is too wet. April under the waxing moon is also a fine time to plant late summer and autumn grasses and legumes in order to extend your grazing season. Early April frosts can cut into the availability of pollen for bees and other insects. If bees are not bringing in pollen, feed a pollen substitute. The waxing moon of April encourages the seeding of almost all flowers and vegetables in flats. Most seeds take one to three weeks to sprout. The small plants should be ready to transplant by the middle to the end of May when the danger of frost has passed. Passover takes place April (the 15th to the 23rd): This Jewish market typically is best after religious holidays come to a close. Milk-fed lambs and kids below 60 pounds are favored for the Passover market. Lamb stew is a traditional Seder dish at Passover Seder dinners. Flower producers have finished preparing bedding plants for Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. Japanese beetle grubs move to the surface of the ground to feed. New calves and lambs are in the fields. At average elevations along the 40th Parallel, three more weeks of relatively mosquito-free gardening remain, seven weeks before frost-sensitive plants will grow without threat from the cold. Mind and Body The S.A.D. Index (which measures, on a scale of 1 to 100) the forces thought to be associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder) rises into the troublesome 50s for several days as April arrives. After that, however, it falls quickly, in spite of April showers. Almanack Literature A Bull is Nothing to Play With by Andy S. Weaver, West Salem, Ohio It was Sunday morning, and we didn’t know what was in store for us later that day. When we came home from church, we went to do our chores. Dad and Mom started to milk the cows, and I started to feed the cattle. Then I saw that the bull was by the little calves. So, I told Dad, and he wanted to put the bull in his pen. He tried, but the bull wouldn’t budge, so Dad threw a stone at him, and the bull turned around in a flash and charged toward Dad. He rolled Dad over and over and over and crushed his heel. Finally, Dad crawled through the barn gate and escaped. I remember when it happened. We children screamed all we were worth. And uncle John got the pressure washer and gave that bull some pink marks. *** Andy received $5 for this tale. Send your memory stories to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. Five dollars will be paid to any author whose story appears in this column. 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. LABSILCIT BALLISTIC CTIPSE SEPTIC EIPPTC PEPTIC CATIT ATTIC CCTTIA TACTIC CITLAC LACTIC CITCEH HECTIC LOHCITCRA HOLARCTIC POTCI OPTIC TCLIASP PLASTIC THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER UEEYBLBRR YRREBYAB REBYRAWSRT SAREBPRERY KCALBYRERB BERYRULM YOBNESEBRYR YRBRLKHCUEE WBEDRERY OOEEYRRBSG Copyright 2022 – W. L. Felker |
