My daybooks for the first week of Aquarius Sun, record snow and cold but also thaws and warmth. Through it all I look for events that contradict the cold, and in Late Winter, many of those events not only anticipate spring but also create the porous definition of this season.
Sometimes I receive phone calls or notes from people who help me define the transition to Aquarius:
- The other day, George and Luisa saw some of the final sandhill cranes of Capricorn;
- Then, Jack called to say his wife, Jane, saw an Eastern bluebird;
- On the 21st in 2006, Suzanne saw four bluebirds;
- By the 22nd in 1989, mourning doves had started to call;
- That day in 2016, Leah reported the emergence of Asian lady beetles in her house;
- On the 22nd in 2018, Michele said she had started tapping trees for sap;
- On the 23rd in 1989, Janet telephoned to report that her yellow aconites were blooming.
- In 2017 that day, Ed Oxley reported fields of his snowdrops were in bloom;
- On the 25th in 1982, Pussy willows were opening in the thaw;
- That day in 2007, Casey called to report a huge flock of robins eating crab apples near the west edge of town.
All of these things do not always happen in the same year, but still, the odds that Late Winter will bring some of these events where you live this week are very good.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the second week of Late Winter. In the meantime, watch and listen for the small events that break through the ice and bring on spring.
