So, when you come to those dark February days of doubt, you go and listen to the maples, feel them, let their slow, impalpable pulse of soil and sun flow into you ... And you know that things are waking up down at the root of this tree. Sap is getting ready to work its way upward. You know, just as sure as you know what day it is. – Hal Borland

In the Sky

The night has shortened by 90 minutes through the space of the last 60 days, and the speed of the change reaches real spring levels along the 40th Parallel, the remaining gain of 70 minutes occurring between Feb. 18 and equinox. The sun, which took 60 days to travel the first half of the way to equinox, suddenly doubles its speed, completing the second half of the journey in only 32 days.

 This month, Venus moves retrograde into Sagittarius and remains the Morning Star. Jupiter in Aries is high in the west at dark and sets later in the evening as the Evening Star. Saturn in Aquarius is barely visible in the west after dark. Mars, in Capricorn, is not visible.

 

Phases of the Camel Cricket Moon 

And the Possum Mating Moon

Feb. 2: The Camel Cricket Moon enters its final quarter

Feb. 9: The Opossum Mating Moon is new

Feb. 16: The moon enters its second quarter

Feb. 24: The moon is full

The S.A.D. Stress Index

The likelihood of seasonal stress begins to fall in February. The average amount of sunlight increases, especially in the South, the night is shrinking, temperatures rise, and the arrival of Early Spring offers the promise of relief – if not actual relief – from seasonal affective disorders.

Key for Interpreting the S.A.D. Index: 

Totals of:

75-65: S.A.D. Alert: Severe Stress 

64-50: Severe to moderate stress

49-35: Moderate stress

34-25: Light to moderate stress

24 and below: Only people with extreme sensitivity to S.A.D. experience seasonal affective disorders below an Index reading of 24.

Day      Clouds  Weather     Day    Totals

Feb. l0:   23           23        19         65

Feb. 20:  22           19        18         59

Feb. 28:  22           19        17         58

 

Weather Trends

New moon on Feb. 9, full moon on Feb. 24 and lunar perigee on Feb. 10 are likely to increase the intensity of the weather systems that typically arrive near those dates.

The Natural Calendar

Almost every year, opossum-mating season begins by the end of the Groundhog Day Thaw. Salamander breeding time opens in the first mild rains, and bobbing blue jays announce blue jay courting season. Doves called occasionally throughout December and January; now their full mating time swells and augments the predawn songs of cardinals and titmice.

When you hear mourning doves singing before dawn, then organize all your buckets for tapping maple syrup. When you hear red-winged blackbirds in the wetlands, then the maple sap should already be running. When maple sap runs, then prune houseplants to encourage spring growth.

When you see sparrows courting, then cut branches of forsythia and pussy willows for forcing indoors. When the first daffodil foliage is two inches tall, then monarch butterflies begin to migrate north from Mexico.

 When the red tips of peonies push out just a little from the ground, then listen for blue jays seeking mates and watch for wild turkeys to be gathering in flocks.

Cardinals began their mating calls before dawn in the last week of deep winter. Now they are in full song by 8 a.m., sometimes sing all day.

Depending on the year, growth occurs on ragwort, dock, sweet rocket, asters, winter cress, poison hemlock, sedum, mint, celandine, plantain, poppies, pansies, daffodils, tulips, crocuses, aconites, hyacinths and strawberries.

The pollen season, which ended with Early Winter, has now begun again across the South with the blooming of mountain cedar, acacia, smooth alder, bald cypress, American elm, red maple, white poplar and black willow. Bluegrass, which stopped flowering in midsummer, revives and starts its seeding cycle. As the February thaws bring moisture and warmth from the Gulf of Mexico, they also bring the pollen from all these flowers to the North.

Countdown to Spring

• Just a week until the first red-winged blackbirds arrive, and skunks prowl the nights and to the first snowdrop bloom and the official start of early spring – a time when maple sap season can begin at any moment

• Two weeks to major pussy willow emerging season and the time during which salamanders mate in the warm rains

• Three weeks to crocus season and owl hatching time and woodcock mating time

• Four weeks to the beginning of the morning robin chorus before sunrise

• Five weeks to daffodil season and silver maple blooming season and the first golden goldfinches

• Six weeks to tulip season and the first wave of blooming woodland wildflowers and the first butterflies

• Seven weeks until golden forsythia blooms and skunk cabbage sends out its first leaves, and the lawn is long enough to cut

• Eight weeks until the peak of Middle Spring wildflowers in the woods

• Nine weeks until American toads sing their mating songs in the dark and corn planting time begins

• 10 weeks until the Great Dandelion and Violet Bloom begins

In the Field and Garden

When the first knuckles of rhubarb emerge from the ground, then it’s time to seed your cold frames with spinach, radishes and lettuce. When trees bloom early but the flowers are killed in the cold, then feed your bees to take up the slack.

When the first snowdrops emerge from their foliage (but are still not open), then be sure your cabbages, kale, Brussels sprouts and collards are sprouting under lights. When aconites bloom, then spread fertilizer in the field and garden so that it can work its way into the ground before planting.

Tree tapping for sap is favored between the 15th and the 20th as red-winged blackbirds burst into song and the moon is fat and round.

Almanack Literature

Storm Watchers

Becky Corwin-Adams

When I was growing up in Northwest Ohio in the 1960s, we enjoyed sitting on our open front porch. Most homes had front porches back then. Like most of our neighbors, we had a wooden swing on our front porch.

My dad had always been fascinated by thunderstorms. Whenever we heard thunder, Dad would hurry out to the porch to watch the approaching storm. My older sister and I loved to join him. The three of us would sit on the swing and watch. Mom never really approved of our storm-watching hobby, as she was sure we would get struck by lightning. Mom never joined us on the porch during a storm.

We would sit with Dad on the swing until one of us (usually my sister) would get scared and go in the house. Sometimes the lightning got too close. Other times, the rain would be blowing so hard we would get soaking wet. Eventually, Dad was left alone on the swing. After the storm had passed, he would come into the house, laughing and asking us why we ran inside so fast.

One time, a chain on the swing broke and sent the swing, with the three of us, onto the porch floor. The impact made a small hole in the wooden floor. Of course, Mom came running out that time. Dad repaired the chain a few days later. The hole was always visible, even after the porch floor was repainted.

In 1975, when my oldest son was about a month old, I was at my parent’s house when a storm came up. A tornado warning was issued, so mom decided we should take the sleeping baby into the basement. Of course, Dad was out on the front porch already. Mom and I sat in the basement for a while with the baby. Dad finally decided he should join us. The storm eventually passed by and mom scolded Dad for being outside watching it.

Dad passed away many years ago. I still love to watch storms, although I don’t have a front porch. The drought this summer has brought back wonderful memories of those good times when we had lots of storms to watch, back in the 1960s.

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Will’s Almanack for 2024 Is Still Available

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Copyright 2024 – W. L. Felker