This week
The Cherry Pie Moon waxes until it becomes totally full on June 26 at 6:30 a.m. The moon will be overhead late in the evening this week, making suppertime and later the most promising lunar times for fishing and the worst times for resisting desserts. The evenings before the June 23 and 29 cool fronts should lower the willpower of both fish and dieters even more.
Full moon, of course, brings higher-than-average tides along the coasts and often an increase in crime and erratic behavior in humans. Pets and livestock may also experience the effects of lunar influence and be harder to handle.
Planting before the full moon is recommended for September beans and corn. Also, seed your broccoli, kale, and collards for October and November harvests. Beets, carrots and turnips can wait until the moon’s third quarter (after full moon).
The weather
The June 23 high-pressure system is typically cool and dry, and it is often followed by some of the sunniest and driest days of all the year. Highs only in the 70s or even the 60s are most likely to occur on the 23rd and 24th, as the front arrives, but then the afternoons usually warm to the 80s or 90s. As the next June front approaches, the benign effects of the June 23 system can be expected to give way to storms.
The final weather system of June is almost always followed by the Corn Tassel Rains, a two-week period of intermittent precipitation that accompanies the Dog Days of Middle Summer in Clark County. If your land has been dry throughout June, the Corn Tassel Rains bring the first real chance of midsummer moisture. In spite of the association of the Corn Tassel Rains with heat, the final two days of June are sometimes the coldest of the year’s midsection, highs below 80 degrees occurring more than half the time in the Springfield area.
Daybook
June 21:
Summer solstice occurs on June 21 at 7:28 a.m. North in Maine, however, azaleas and columbine are still bright with spring color. Lupines hold in Bar Harbor. Foxglove and privet are budding in Bangor, strawberries just ripening. Through the valleys of Vermont, the wheat is deep green wheat — it is golden and almost ready to cut here in Clark County.
June 22: As Middle Summer begins in Springfield, catmint, spiderwort, oakleaf hydrangea, achillea, great blue hosta, stella d'oro lilies, coral bells, lamb's ear, pink spirea, astilbe, Japanese honeysuckles, and hollyhocks are in full bloom.
June 23: Leafhoppers and Japanese beetles are reaching the economic threshold on the farm. Daddy longlegs are mating in your bushes. Katydids are silent but roving, sometimes visiting your back porch. The first woolly-bear caterpillars, harbingers of winter, cross the road.
June 24: 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 25: May apples should be ready to harvest in the woods. Your animals and relatives may be getting hard to handle as the moon gets ready to turn full tomorrow morning.
June 26: This is the week that the wheat harvest often begins in the fields above the Ohio River, the same week that bright orange butterfly weed opens and acorns become fully formed. It's the time of the major decay of thistles, their flowers changing to down.
June 27: Summer blueberries are being picked along the Great Lakes, and cornfields start tasseling in the nation's midsection.
Middle Summer arrives
This season contains three to five fronts and lasts from late June through the first week of August. Average temperatures are the highest of the year during most of the period; they start to fall on July 28. Cicadas and crickets sing in Middle Summer. Garden production peaks. Local farmers harvest oats and winter wheat. Autumn bird migrations begin. Summer apples ripen. Sweet corn comes in as the day’s length loses almost an hour.
Mind and body clock
The arrival of Middle Summer can provide relief from some of the more subtle effects of Spring Fever and the unexpected mood swings of Early Summer. Part of the reason for this respite could be more realistic expectations about what this period of the year will bring. If field and garden conditions have been favorable, then a farmer’s and gardener’s early optimism may be confirmed. If conditions have been less than favorable, then a period of adjustment may already be underway. Whether a person works in the city or the country, unrealistic expectations (and anxieties) are often tempered by the deepening of the year.
Bill Felker has been watching local weather and writing almanacks since 1984. Contact him at wfelker@woh.rr.com or visit his Web site at poorwillsalmanack.com.