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Poor Will's Almanack: December 9 - 15, 2014

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This second week of early winter brings to a close the Season of Bittersweet Shedding and the Corn and Soybean Harvest Season. Leafdrop Season is complete for almost every tree. In the garden, Strawberry Mulching Season complements Herb Transplanting Season, the time to transfer oregano, rosemary, parsley, thyme and sage to indoor pots.

​ The second week of the natural year brings Duck Migration Season and Gull Migration Season to a close in the Midwest. For ducks on the northern Atlantic seaboard, the Season of Movement to Coastal Waters starts as ice covers inland ponds and lakes.

But as these seasons continue to punctuate the end of the old year, The Season of Later Sunsets starts on or about December 14th when the sun goes down a minute later for the first time since summer almost everywhere in the continental United States.

And Sunset continues to move later in the day throughout the next six months, gaining almost a quarter of an hour in December, and then plunging quickly toward its latest time until the first days of July when this season ends and the Season of Earlier Sunsets begins.

This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the third week of early winter and the first week of the Marauding Mouse Moon, the fourth week of the sun in Sagittarius and the third week of the new natural year. In the meantime, take note of the sun’s position at setting and at rising: these are the positions furthest south the sun ever moves along our horizon, a kind of ground-zero from which all the spring will grow.

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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.