I would be so sensitive to Nature’s moods – so close that a coming change would make itself known in the look of a house hours or even days in advance – Charles Burchfield, Journal, December 9, 1917

The Second Week of Late Fall

Astronomical Data and Lore

The Corn and Soybean Harvest Moon wanes all week, reaching perigee, its position closest to Earth at 6:49 a.m on Nov. 14 and becoming the Manger Moon (marking the time livestock need hay and supplements as pasture growth slows in the cold) on Nov. 15 at 12:08 a.m. Rising in the early morning and setting in the late afternoon, this moon passes overhead in the middle of the day, encouraging creatures to be more active around that time, especially as the cold fronts of Nov. 16 and 20 approach.

Venus, now in Virgo, is the Morning Star, continuing to dominate the eastern sky before dawn. Jupiter and Saturn in Sagittarius are almost lost in the evening dusk low in the west. Mars rises with Pisces from the east as Jupiter and Saturn disappear with Sagittarius into the horizon. 

The Leonid meteor shower reaches its best on the night of the 17th. 

Weather Trends

In the entire month of November, five or six completely clear days can be expected, 10 or 11 partly cloudy days, and about 13 mostly or completely cloudy ones. Odds are even that most of the warmer days will be cloudy. The sky becomes especially gray after the 14th of the month, the solar pivot time when the Midwest darkens until May, and the percentage of sunshine in an average day drops from 60 percent to 40 percent. 

A dramatic increase in the number of freezing predawn temperatures starts with the Nov. 11 cold front,  lows below 32 growing from a frequency average of 40 percent up to 70 percent across the nation’s midsection. It is probable that lunar perigee on Nov. 14 will strengthen the power of the new moon on Nov. 15, increasing the chances of frost.

Notes on the Progress of the Year

A warm October and November often create a benign cradle for the resurgence of Second Spring. The last autumn violets are still blooming beside a few chicory, Queen Anne’s lace, thyme-leafed speedwell, mallow, the final asters and one or two stalks of goldenrod.  Wild geraniums, thistles, and cinquefoil can be coming back.  Sometimes a parsnip is ready to bloom.  Garlic mustard, sweet Cicely, Virginia creeper, burdock, red clover, waterleaf, ground ivy, celandine, sweet rocket, dock, leafcup have also recovered, looking ahead six months to Deep Spring.

Lawns grow back, often long and thick beneath the fallen leaves. Winter grain, destined for harvest in June, sprouts to turn fields glowing green. The skunk cabbage of March rises higher in the muck.

Lamium groundcover revives in dooryards. The latest roses bloom. Pachysandra, its buds formed in May, waits for a warm February. Mint and thyme, rosemary, parsley and verbena are fresh in the garden. New spinach and chard are sweet and tender. Comfrey is fat. Creeping Charlie spreads around them.

 Remnants of Late Summer add to the impression of renewal, pansies or nasturtiums or even petunias, spared from frost, keeping blossoms. Yellowing honeysuckle glows like April forsythia along the bike path. 

In the greenhouse, jade trees and aloe sometimes flower.  In south windows, Christmas cacti open. Paperwhite and amaryllis bulbs extend their stalks for solstice. 

 Cardinals sometime sing. Late or overwintering robins call in short bursts or whinnies. Small moths appear at porch lights. Crickets still chant for each other in the dark.

In the Field and Garden

After chores, calculate taxable farm and garden income for the first three quarters of the year and plan your expenditures and sales for the remaining weeks – as well as for the year to come.

Clean up all around the yard and garden, cut your wood, clear out the hedgerows and haul manure. Mulch strawberries with straw. 

Feed the lawn - fall is a better time than in the spring - the winter’s rain and snow, freezing and thawing, will gently work the fertilizer through the soil. Mulch the wet perennial beds to prevent drying and cold damage.

Plant an evergreen in the yard: now that the leaves are down, you will be able to position it for best winter appearance.

Journal

Not long ago, my older sister, a Medieval scholar, suggested that I read the annual predictions made in a 15th-century commonplace book by Robert Reynes, overseer of a village in Norfolk, England. 

Robert Reynes’ prognostications were “Dominical” forecasts; that is, they were based on when the first Sunday of the year occurred. 

If that Sunday fell on January 1, then that Sunday’s letter (or “Dominical Letter”) was A. If the first Sunday of the year fell on January 2, the Dominical Letter was B, and so forth. 

Using Dominical Letters as the basis for forecasting weather, the fate of the crops and death and destruction, Robert Reynes, shared prognostications for each dominical situation in his Yeoman’s Commonplace Book, which he wrote in the 1470s.

Given these dangerous and uncertain times in the 21st century, I was curious about what Reynes might say about the events one might expect in 2021.

Well, the first Sunday of the year ahead begins on Jan. 3, and that means the forecast comes from the Dominical Letter C.

Here’s what Reynes says for that year:

“Whanne the Dominical letter fallyth vpon the C, thanne schall there be a gret wynter and a stormyng somere, a drye harvest, resonable plente of corn and frute, but smale been. But yonge people schull dey, deth of swyne, tempestis of shippes in the see, and there dere  wyndes that yeer.”

Now Reynes includes political forecasts for some Dominical years but not the year of the letter C. Maybe, however, it’s all right not to know. From the Dominical forecast, I might expect there to be decent crops, death of pigs and young people, and plenty of bad weather in 2021. I’m not sure I want to know any more than that.

ALMANACK LITERATURE

Now He’s in Trouble

By Diane Meier, Elizabethtown, IN

My husband is a good man. He’s honest, reliable, dependable. But the man has a sneaky side to him. Probably no one would suspect this.

Years ago, one warm July morning, I was making the bed. I picked up the bedspread from the floor and tossed it on the bed. And…out fell a little snake. Well, I screamed and yelled and ran to the kitchen to tell the husband.

Resourceful man that he is, he put on leather gloves and picked up a baseball bat! I said, “Don’t smash it on the bed!” But he held down the snake with the bat and picked it up and threw it a whole two feet out the front door.

Then he told me that snakes travel in pairs! I believed him, honest man that he is. So all day I was nervous and jumpy, afraid that I’d find the partner.

So, that warm July night, he went to bed first. I came in later and pulled up the sheet (no air conditioning). I settled in and felt SOMETHING under my back. I screamed the second time that day and turned on the light. There was the “second snake” a carefully rolled up tissue about the size of the original snake. Husband’s now laughing, shaking the whole bed.

The story’s not over. About a week later, the same scenario. He went to bed first. I followed later and this time after I pulled up the sheet, I felt something moving over my legs. I tell myself it’s my imagination. NO, it’s really moving. I screamed, turned on the light and saw husband reeling in a little plastic snake tied on a long string over the sheet.

Husband now in trouble!

***

Poor Will is STILL low on stories! Send yours to him at P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387 or to poorwill@poorwillsalmanack.com. You’ll receive $5.00 payment if your story appears in this column.

***

Answers To Last Week’s Sckrambler.

In order to estimate your Sckrambler IQ, award yourself 15 points for each word unscrambled, adding a 50-point bonus for getting all of them correct. If you find a typo, add another 15 points to your IQ.

EZGAINO AGONIZE

ARELEZI REALIZE

ZIEHTPASMY SYMPATHIZE

MEPAHSIZE EMPHASIZE

PYHTONEIZ HYPNOTIZE

ZEOAIERRGN REORGANIZE          

EZIGOLOPA APOLOGIZE

MONRAHZIE HARMONIZE

IZETRAPNO PATRONIZE

ZOCONIME ECONOMIZE

This Week’s Rhyming Sckrambler

UEOASJL

RAMEVLSUO

LOLUSCA

OOOIUBNXS

SURIOUC                 

OSUVENI

SOULARHI

XOSIPNA

NOPSNATESUO

SVBUOIO

Poor Will’s Almanack for 2021

is now available. This year’s Almanack contains detailed descriptions of all 48 seasons of the year and 30 Almanack Literature stories. Order from Amazon or purchase an autographed copy by sending a check for $20.00 to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387.

Copyright 2020  - W. L. Felker