© 2025 WYSO
Our Community. Our Nation. Our World.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Poor Will's Almanack: July 23 - 30, 2024

goldenrod flowers
Pixabay

Across the earth, separated like celestial stars by size, distance, time and place, the flowers of Deep Summer form their own clusters or constellations. They are separate from each other like the stars of the sky. But their relationships offer varied possibilities for sharing the land in the minds eye.

Along a woodland path, tall wingstem shows its golden petals. Other clusters cross the landscape sky. The great autumn bull thistles and field thistles.

The late summer varieties of goldenrods invade the gardens and pastures. Resurrection lilies — sometimes called naked ladies — appear. Another constellation is ironweed, as deep summer comes to a close, its rich purple is a flagship of Augusts' approach. The common ragweed produces its pollen in the alleys. And then its time for the coneflowers along the rivers, and the white boneset in the swamps.

This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with more notes on the seasons. In meantime, look for the stars of the night and of the day time too.

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.