Now comes the time of rich purple in the fields and meadows, denoting not only a time but a maturity. It is as though the whole Summer had been building toward this deep, strong color to match the gold of late sunlight and early goldenrod. – Hal Borland

The Second Week of Late Summer

In The Sky Phases of the Ant Migration Moon

Aug. 19: The moon is full.

Aug. 26: The moon enters its final quarter.

Weather Trends

The weather in the third week of August is somewhat stable, bringing highs in the 90s on 15 to 20 percent of the afternoons, milder 80s 55 percent of the time, and cool 70s the remaining 25 percent. And full moon on the 19th favors cool 70s! Chances of rain increase from 25 percent at the beginning of the period to 30 percent by Aug. 21, and then drop abruptly to just 15 percent on the 22nd.

 

The Natural Calendar

When spiders start build more webs in the woodlot, then yellow jacket season begins in the windfall apples and plums, and morning fogs increase in the lowlands.

Wild cherries ripen, and hickory nuts and black walnuts drop into the undergrowth. The second-last wave of late-summer wildflowers, clearweed, virgin’s bower, white boneset, field thistle and Japanese knotweed, come into bloom. Milkweed bugs die, all their flowers turned to pods.

It is high bloom for velvetleaf, jimson weed, prickly mallow, wild lettuce, ironweed and wingstem, but teasel and tall bell flower time is over.

Goldenrod and the rich purple of ironweed brighten the fields, while tall bellflowers soften the mood of the decaying forest undergrowth with their blossoms of powder blue.

 

In the Field and Garden

August and September are soil-testing months – both for your fall and winter garden as well as the fields where you intend to sow winter wheat and rye, alfalfa, clover and timothy. Plant or renew pasture in September or October for April and May.

Elderberries and wild grapes should be perfect for juice and wine by the middle of the month. Garlic planting time is here along the Canadian border from Washington to Maine.

Second-crop raspberry and strawberry harvest time picks up. Mum selling time is approaches for the mum growers. Pansy time is here for the autumn pansy market.

Second-brood corn borers, the second generation of bean leaf beetles, and the rootworm beetles still work the fields. Banded ash clearwings attack local ash trees.

The summer apple harvest is typically more than half complete along the 40th parallel. Farmers are preparing for the seeding of winter rye, wheat, and barley.

 

Almanack Journal

Learn the Phases of the Moon

These warm summer nights, learn the lunar phases. Begin with the full moon. Everyone has seen it at least once, rising near dusk. The full moon does the same thing every month, always rising out of the east from 5-8:30 p.m. It is the only eastern evening moon, and moves across the sky, shining all night, and setting after dawn. If you get up early, you will see it lying in the west.

The other lunar phases are not so obvious, but still, they aren’t so difficult. You need to know that the moon rises approximately 50 minutes later each day, completing a fourth of its cycle in approximately one week. And so, by the time the full moon has reached it fourth quarter, it is rising near midnight, setting toward noon. You will see it overhead if you get up before sunrise. The fourth quarter moon is always the high morning moon, contracting to its final phase.

As it wanes more and more, the moon finally reaches its darkest point and then renews itself. That new moon rises, nearly invisible, near dawn. It is overhead around noon and sets near sundown. It is doubly dark then, covered by the shadow of the earth and hidden by the brilliance of the sun.

As the new moon waxes, it also rises later in the morning, sets later at night, so that its thin crescent can be seen after sundown. The thin west evening moon is always a first-quarter moon. And the higher it is when you see it at night, the thicker it will be.

By the time it has reached its second quarter, the moon is rising in the early afternoon, is overhead by supper time, and lights up the western sky until the middle of the night, setting near 1:00 a.m. Then as it appears later and later in the afternoon, it becomes fuller and fuller, until it is the full moon once again, rising in the early evening.

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.

LETB    BELT

MSLET    SMELT

TLEG      GELT

LETC      CELT

TELK    KELT

EDLAT  DEALT

FLETREAH    HEARTFELT

MSSPLTIE    MISSPELT

ROOEETLVS    ROOSEVELT

VLTES      SVELT

 

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

LEWOB    

OOEB     

MMUBO    

OBMUJ    

AEAUFLMB    

HOOB     

RBOUT    

BOMWMA    

WOBCRSSO    

CELAPBO

Copyright 2024, W. L. Felker