Back in 2005, my friend Ruby (who was 95 at the time), had seen cows standing knee deep in mud, and she saw one of them switch its tail, and that, she declared, was a sign of spring.
Indeed, under the Cows Switching Their Tails Moon, the signs are all about. Toads and green frogs sing, ducklings and goslings hatch. Flowering pears and plums and apples and cherries bloom and set their fruit.
Morel mushrooms appear and May apples push out from the ground, and leaves come out on skunk cabbage.The high canopy buds and greens, and wild turkeys gobble. The grass is getting long in the lawn a sign that opossums and raccoons are giving birth in the woodlots and young goslings are hatching by the ponds and rivers.
Tent caterpillars emerge in the trees and the redbuds start to turn purple.
Under the full of the Cows Switching Their Tails Moon, dogwoods and crab apples open, and winter grains are almost tall enough to ripple in the wind. The great annual violet and dandelion bloom begins.
Pussy willow bushes start to get their leaves, and rhubarb should be just about ready for pie. Clovers bloom, and flea 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 cumultive canvas of the season.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the second week of Middle Spring and the first full week of the Cows Switching their Tails Moon. In the meantime, Sure, see if you can find a cow switching its tail. And you know what that means!
