In this week's episode, notes from Bill Felker's 40 years of observing what happens in nature.
Bill Felker: This is Bill Felker with Poor Will's Almanack for the very first week of middle spring. And it's also the very first week of the cows switching their tails moon. The second week of the sun and Aries.
Back in 2005, my friend Ruby, who happened to be 95 years old at the time, had seen cows standing knee-deep in mud and, well, she saw one of them switch its tail, and that, she declared, was a sign of spring. So indeed, under the cows switching their tails' moon.
Middle spring spreads all across the month. Toads and green frogs sing, ducklings and goslings hatch, flowering pears and plums, and apples and cherries bloom and then set their fruit.
Under this moon, morel mushrooms appear and mayapples push out of the ground, and leaves come out on the skunk cabbage in the swamp. The high canopy buds and greens and wild turkeys gobble. The grass gets long in the lawn, a sign that opossums and raccoons are giving birth in the woodlots, and the young goslings are hatching by the ponds and rivers. Tent caterpillars emerge, and the trees and red buds start to turn purple.
Under the full of the cows switching their tails moon, dogwood crabapples open and winter greens are almost tall enough to ripple in the wind, and the great annual violet and dandelion bloom begins. Pussy willows start to get their leaves, and rhubarb should be just about ready for pie. Flee season begins for pets and livestock, wisteria comes into flower, and lilacs, mock orange and honeysuckle follow. And each new year overlays the years that have come before, blending a composite of events and images that blurs the narrative but creates a cumulative canvas of the season.
Bill Felker contributes to newspapers nationwide, including the "Yellow Springs News." Bill resides in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Poor Will's Almanack is brought to you by Tree Care Inc., offering services in arboriculture throughout the region. Trees make life better.
