Beneath this sense of cold’s enormity is an equally strong sense of its ability to make us sensitive to one another, to ourselves, to our world. – Susan Felch

The Moon in December

The Moon is new on Dec. 20

The Moon enters its second quarter on Dec. 27

Sun Time: Winter Solstice occurs on Dec. 21 at 10:02 a.m. The Sun enters the deep winter constellation of Capricorn on the same day.

The Stars: for the unusual star that shone down on Bethlehem, the sky of midnight on Christmas Eve is almost the same as the one seen by shepherds 2000 years ago: Orion due south, Leo with its brilliant Regulus in the east and the Great Square in the far west, the Milky Way dividing the heavens from the southeast to the northwest.

Weather Time: The Dec. 25 Front: The Christmas cold front is one of the most consistent highs of the entire year, bearing precipitation five years in 10. It is typically followed by some of the brightest days of December. Travel and transport of livestock is recommended as this weather system moves east but before the arrival of the New Year’s front.

The Dec. 31-Jan. 1 Front: The Jan. 1 cold front often brings rain or snow prior to its arrival. Plan on chilly, freezing weather to follow.

Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year: Milder December weather may open pussy willows and draw up snowdrops, crocus and aconites as the days expand, but along the Gulf of Mexico, the sun is already shortening the dormancy of trees and shrubs, hurrying the gestation of spring. Across coastal Georgia, sweet gums and yellow poplars finally lose their leaves, and their buds swell almost immediately to replace the loss. In central Florida, red maples open, and Jessamine produces its yellow blossoms.

Farm and Garden Time: Collards and kale, and well mulched carrots and beets can survive to this point in the season, but January’s cold spells eventually take them. Indoors, however, tomato and pepper plants, seeded in middle summer and brought inside before frost, should continue to produce fruit in a south window. Basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme and oregano may also be doing well. In the warmth of greenhouses, bedding plant seeding is fully underway, and some young plants scheduled to be sold in April and May have four to six leaves by now.

Mind and Body Time: Mark the deepest entry of the Sun through one of your south windows today. A pencil mark on the floor or wall will provide a comforting measure of the advance of spring as the sunlight recedes (as the sun grows higher in the sky) during the months ahead – not only in your home, but in all of North America. Even though you can’t control the weather or what happens in nature, you can at least follow along, keeping your finger literally on path of the Sun in your private observatory.

Creature Time (for fishing, hunting, feeding, bird watching): most productive days should be those before the Dec. 25 front. The days prior to the arrival of that front will also milder, and will be less likely to freeze (and damage) the carcasses of your fish and game. Precipitation, however, could complicate your outings. White-tailed bucks in gray winter coats drop their antlers as the old year comes to an end; see if you can find them. And dieters should plan to have a balanced snack at about 3:30 p.m. and a moderate early dinner to keep lunar influence under control.

Journal

Dec. 25, 2009: I got up about 5 this morning in the middle of a Christmas rainstorm, the wind and raindrops pelting the southeast corner of the house. After an hour, the rain stopped, but the wind kept on, and by sunrise, my neighborhood lay in the center of the low-pressure cell, the sky clearing.

Then when I went outside, I found a polygonia comma – an angel-wing butterfly – on the head of the stone crucifix my sister had given me some years ago. The insect must have emerged or was driven from its winter quarters in the storm and had found refuge on the cross.

The polygonias overwinter as adults, so I thought it might have a chance to survive the coming cold. I watched it all day as the temperature held steady in the 40s. I went out to check on it before I went to bed, and it was still there.

Dec. 29, 2009: Titmice were singing about 8:30 this morning, but the polygonia butterfly that arrived in the Christmas storm and perched on the head of the cruicifx between the 25th and the 28th was gone when I went out to the porch once again, its message to me apparently complete.

ALMANACK CLASSICS

A Frightening Experience at Christmas Time

By Clarence Dinnen, Jamestown, Ohio

The year 1939-1940 was a memorable one for me. I was in the third grade at the Bowersville, Ohio, school. All 12 grades were in the same building. One morning, we were bused to Xenia to hear a symphony orchestra. The music had a lasting impression on me. And at Christmas time, the high school acted out Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I was genuinely scared of the ghosts of Marley, Christmas Past, Present and Future.

But the most frightening experience happened one day unexpectedly. A high school girl came into our third-grade room and spoke with our teacher, Miss Vanami, and left. A few moments passed, and then our teacher said, “Clarence, you are to go upstairs to the superintendent’s office.”

A murmur rippled through the class. I stepped into the hall and the girl was waiting. She escorted me up the long flight of stairs to the second floor and the office. I was really frightened, much more so than of the ghosts in the Christmas play. There were rumors circulating that there was a paddling machine in the office!

The superintendent, Mr. Alfred, greeted me warmly with a big smile and asked me to sit down. (So far so good.) Then he said, “Clarence I hear that you have lost your dog.”

I said, “Yes, he was run over by a car.”

He said, “Well, I have found you a new puppy.”

Oh, I was greatly relieved! Then he told me to ask my parents about the puppy. I couldn’t wait to get home from school to tell them. I got the puppy and named him Mickey. He was a spaniel mix that grew into a fine, affectionate dog that I had for years.