The land is dusted with mist as the early morning sun sheds its ray, The air is crisp with the promise of Spring and fragrant with nature’s bouquet.

Gravel shuffles noisily beneath my feet as I swiftly walk on my way, Savoring each moment, alone with my thoughts, planning events of the day.

From “A Morning’s Walk” by Beverly Bouman, Willard, Ohio

Astronomical data and lore

The Great Groundhog Moon waxes throughout the period, becoming full at 3:17 on Feb. 27. Rising in the evening and setting in the morning, this moon passes overhead in the middle of the night, encouraging creatures to be most active around that time, especially as the cold fronts of Feb. 28 and March 3 approach.

Before midnight, Leo and Regulus are overhead. The Pleiades and Taurus lead Orion into the far west. The Big Dipper protrudes deep into the center of the sky. By 6 a.m., the stars have become a prophecy of Late Summer, August’s Vega almost overhead, Hercules a little to its east, the Northern Cross to its west. Just before dawn, the stars of Capricorn lie in the southeast. Sagittarius and Scorpius (easily identified by the red star, Antares, in its center) fill the south. West of Scorpius is the boxy Libra. West of Libra is Virgo, marked by Spica, the brightest of the southwestern stars.

Weather trends

Snowdrop Winter arrived around the 24th, often one of the windiest days of the month, and colder temperatures often return for up to 72 hours. While 50s and 60s each come 5 percent of the time, and 40s are recorded 35 to 40 percent of the years, highs only in the 20s or 30s occur the remaining 50 percent, and chances for a high in the teens appear for the last time this season. Average temperatures now rise at their spring and early summer rate, one degree every three days, until the second week of June.

Zeitgebers

(Events in nature that tell the time of year)

Cardinals are singing near 6:40 a.m. Wild violet leaves begin to grow when the snow melts.

Migrant crows return with their young. Chipmunks come out to play and mate in the sun. Rabbits are breeding as wild multiflora roses sprout their first leaves.

The steelhead salmon run comes to a close in Lake Erie. Carp mate in the river shallows. Feeding seasons begin for walleye, sauger, saugeye, muskie, bass and crappie.

Sweet corn has been planted along the Gulf coast. Redbuds and azaleas are in full bloom in Georgia, rhododendrons just starting to come in. In the lowlands of Mississippi, swamp buttercups are open, violets and black medic, too.

Measure the height of hyacinths, daffodils and tulips. Note the color and size of lilac and other buds. Count the number of pussy willows emerged. Check for chickweed greening in the bushes. Spring does not necessarily arrive with warm weather; it is the accumulation of individual events that finally overwhelm the winter.

Countdown to spring

• About a week to the beginning of the morning robin chorus before sunrise. 

• Two weeks to early daffodil season and silver maple blooming season. 

• Three weeks to the first wave of blooming woodland wildflowers and the very first cabbage white butterflies.

• Four weeks until golden forsythia blooms in town and skunk cabbage sends out its first leaves in the wetlands.

• Five weeks until the peak of Middle Spring wildflowers in the woods, and crab apples flower.

• Six weeks until American toads sing their mating songs in the night.

• Seven weeks until tulip time in the garden and toad trillium time in the woodlands.

• Eight weeks until the Great Dandelion and Violet Bloom begins.

• Nine weeks until azaleas and snowball viburnums and dogwoods bloom.

• Ten weeks until iris and poppies and daisies come into flower.

Mind and Body

The S.A.D. Index, which measures seasonal stress on a scale from 1 to 100, rises gradually from the lower 60s at the beginning of the period to the lower 70s by the end of the month (the last time they climb so high in this first half of the year). Even though the nights are shortening quickly and the odds for decent weather improve by the day, the waxing moon at perigee becomes full as February ends, increasing the chances of seasonal affective disorder. For full S.A.D. statistics, consult Poor Will’s Almanack for 2021.

In the field and garden 

Before spring growth begins, spray ash, bittersweet, fir, elm, flowering fruit trees, hawthorn, juniper, lilac, linden, maple, oak, pine, poplar, spruce, sweet gum, tulip tree and willow for scales and mites.

Apply more fertilizer to trees, shrubs and perennial beds. Water the earth thoroughly in order to get everything off to a good start.

Normal average temperatures break 32 degrees throughout the lower Midwest, and many tulips, hyacinths and lilies of the valley are emerging from the ground.

Winter wheat is greening and developing in the fields, offering a patchwork promise of April. Mares show signs of estrus, as the days grow longer. The last of the lambs and kids conceived in middle autumn are born.

Plant sweet peas and the first row of regular green peas directly in the garden, as conditions permit. Make plans to sell kids and lambs to the Easter Market at the end of March and in early April.

Almanack Classics 

Addled

By Lois Rivard, Placerville, Calif.

When we sold our cattle ranch and moved to a smaller place, our Australian Shepherd, Shorty, was a very unhappy dog. He would whine and start down the driveway, wanting us to follow him back home. He was used to herding cattle and here he had nothing to do.

There was s mall pen of laying hens, but he wasn’t interested in them until one day a hawk swooped down, hitting one hen on the head, flying off with it, but dropping it about 50 feet away. Shorty ran over and brought the hen back to the pen.

For several days, he lay beside her, licking the big knot that appeared on her head. He growled at anyone who came near, so we put food and water out for both dog and hen.

After several days, the hen tried to walk. She had a strange gait and was definitely not normal. Her head wobbled, her cackle sounded more like a croak and the knot gave her head a strange shape.

Our boys named her ADDLED because of her condition and fixed a small place for her – to keep the other hens from pecking at her.

From then on, it was a common sight to see dog and hen walking along together. Shorty was always right beside her. He would stop and wait when Addled scratched in the dirt for a worm. He had found a job and a good buddy. Addled lived to a ripe old age and laid an egg every day.

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.

GLEJIG JIGGLE

GGJLUE JUGGLE

DELNIK KINDLE

GALLE LEGAL

BLEMGRU GRUMBLE

ZZUGEL GUZZLE

AZHEL HAZEL

ELITOSH HOSTILE

YMNHLA HYMNAL

REBGIL GERBIL

This Week’s Rhyming Sckrambler

PACHEL

SELICH

CKELCHU

RUMBLEC

NKCRIE

MIDELP

IALTSD

BIRDELB

LOAASTC

LERRAC