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Poor Will's Almanack: May 29 - June 4, 2018

maple seeds
Linda Owens
/
Flickr Creative Commons

The Daddy Longlegs Moon becomes totally full as it rises at dusk today, passing overhead throughout the night, cooling the evenings but still inviting walks and courting and memories in its light. As the Moon comes up shining in the east, Venus offers counterpoint as the giant evening star in the far west, and Jupiter, in Libra along the southern tree line, balances Polaris in the north.

Under this Gemini sky, after peonies come in and the flowers of the yellow poplar open, past the decline of poppies, then the last leaves of the canopy cover almost all of the United States. 

When the high foliage is complete, the clustered snakeroot, a favorite haunt of daddy longlegs, hangs with pollen in the shade, and parsnips, goatsbeard and sweet clovers take over the fields.  Orange day lilies lead the season of lilies.

Elderberry bushes and catalpa trees flower along the highways. Cow vetch, wild parsnips, poison hemlock, motherwort, yarrow, and the rough Canadian thistles bloom.

Petals of mock orange, honeysuckle, lupine and Dutch iris fall to the garden floor. Osage and black walnut flowers come down in the rain. Maple seeds spin to through the air like butterflies. The last sweet gum cases tumble down as the sweet gum leaves push them off to grow.

Under the closing canopy, late spring's garlic mustard, columbine, geraniums, ragwort, chickweed and catchweed die back, their yellow foliage dividing May from June.

This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the second week of Early Summer. In the meantime, watch the full moon rise into the gemini sky, and find Venus shining in the west at dusk.

 

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Bill Felker has been writing nature columns and almanacs for regional and national publications since 1984. His Poor Will’s Almanack has appeared as an annual publication since 2003. His organization of weather patterns and phenology (what happens when in nature) offers a unique structure for understanding the repeating rhythms of the year.