Woolly bear caterpillars start crossing the roads

8:36 PM Saturday, June 20, 2009

I often think that external space reflects inner space, that patterns of gardening or farming are not unlike the patterns of quilting or painting or writing. The textures and colors and shapes of flowers and vegetables are woven into designs that communicate taste and insight, feelings and analysis. Everything a person makes or fails to make exposes an inner mathematics and a guiding soul, an energy or loss.

This week

The Cattail Moon, new on June 22, waxes throughout the last week of the month, entering its second quarter at 6:28 a.m. on June 29. Rising in the middle of the day and setting in the middle of the night, this moon is over Clark County in the afternoon and evening.

Venus and Mars, still together, move into Taurus during July, coming up with autumn’s Pleiades in the dark morning hours, rising high into the southeast before sunrise. Jupiter appears in Capricorn before midnight and travels across the southern horizon through the night. Saturn, in Leo, sets at dusk.

Weather

Chances for warm temperatures above 80 degrees remain relatively steady at 80 percent throughout the period. Sun is more common than clouds, and there is only a 20 percent chance for a completely overcast day during this week of June. Daily chances for rain throughout this period of the month are 30 percent except on June 25 and 26; those two days are some of the driest of the entire year in Clark County, carrying only a 10 percent chance for precipitation

Daybook

Today, June 22: West in the Rocky Mountains, lupines are in full bloom at 4,000 feet, lilacs and early iris are coming in above 6,000 feet. Fields of dandelions and spring beauties flower at 7,000 feet. Cow parsnips, yarrow, moth mullein, yellow sweet clover, meadow goat’s beard, milkweed and great mullein line the roads to the Oregon coast.

June 23: Sycamore bark is shedding now that solstice has passed, a sign that the winter wheat harvest is moving up into the Ohio Valley. It’s the time of the major decay of thistles, their flowers changing to down. Hemlock season is complete, stalks collapsing into the tall grasses. Clustered snakeroot has gone to seed like the waterleaf. Parsnip heads brown in the sun. Privet is done blooming.

June 24: Leafhoppers and Japanese beetles are reaching the economic threshold on the farm. Katydids are silent but roving. The first woolly bear caterpillars, harbingers of winter, cross the road. Some baby snappers and mud turtles are hatching.

June 25: Wild garlic is blooming. Large, pink Rugosa roses are coming in, accompanied by the black-eyed Susans, wild petunias, and hobblebush. Staghorns have pushed out on the sumac. Cattails are almost fully developed. May apples should be ready to harvest in the woods.

June 26: Middle Summer typically begins near this date and lasts through Aug. 10. In those 45 days, an hour is lost from the day’s length, and the year turns toward autumn. Even though night lengthens in this middle season, the amount of possible sunshine reaches its zenith, and the percentage of totally sunny days in a week is the highest of the year. And between now and the end of the first week of August, average temperatures vary just one degree at most locations.

June 27: Summer blueberries are being picked along the Great Lakes, and cornfields start tasseling in Clark County.

June 28: Coneflowers, white vervain, oxeye, horseweed, germander, teasel and wild lettuce blossom in the fields; tall bellflowers open in the woods. Thimble plants set thimbles. All those flowers tell you it really is Middle Summer.

Mind and body clock

The transition to Middle Summer, like the transition from Late Spring to Early Summer, intensifies the effect of heat, humidity and landscape on the mind and body. Those who have trouble with high temperatures often tend to stay indoors too much and fall prey to mid-year S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder). The body’s immune system declines in some people as the heat rises, but diabetic reactions are said to be less severe in the year’s sixth and seventh months. Middle Summer also brings the peak of weight-loss season; your chances of losing pounds are the best of the whole year between now and September. Perhaps related to visions of weight loss, some studies have shown that most miraculous appearances occur between now and September — just the time that people are losing the most weight!

Moon and livestock

The moon is overhead in the afternoon this week, encouraging dieters, livestock and game to eat and fish to bite at that time, and especially as the cool fronts of June 29 approaches.

Bill Felker has been writing almanacks since 1984. Contact him at wfelker@woh.rr.com or visit his Web site at poorwillsalmanack.com.

Share this article