Paying attention provides the gift of noticing, and the gift of connecting. It provides the gift of seeing a little bit of ourselves in others, and of realizing that we’re not so awfully alone. It allows us to let go of the burden of so much of what we habitually carry with us, and receive the gift of the present moment. – Sharon Salzberg

The Moon in October

The Moon enters its final quarter on Oct. 14 

The Moon is new on Oct. 22

The Moon enters its second quarter on Oct. 29

The Morning and Evening Stars of October

Venus in Virgo and Mars in Libra are the morning stars. They remain in the daytime sky until evening when they can be seen as the evening stars. Jupiter in Gemini follows Orion across the sky, appearing in the east before dawn.

Meteors in October

The Orionid Meteor Shower will occur in and around Orion in the early morning of Oct. 20-21.

The Stars

June’s brightest star, Arcturus, sets before 9 p.m. The Milky Way moves overhead, and the Pleiades, followed by the Hyades and Aldebaran, have come up in the west by midnight. Orion is fully visible then and is centered in the south by 5 a.m.

The Cold Fronts of Middle October

Oct. 17: Chances of freezing temperatures continue to grow as the October fronts advance. Lows in the 20s or 30s are most likely to occur on the mornings of the 19th and 20th, with the latter date carrying the highest chances of a freeze so far this season.

Oct. 23: This system almost always produces rain or snow. After it passes through, however, the 26th, the 28th and the 29th are often some of the best days of the month for harvest. But the morning’s most likely to bring a killing frost during the month’s final week are the 25th and the 26th. Both have a 35 percent chance of a low only in the 20s along the 40th Parallel, the first time this season the odds have risen so high.

Oct. 27: The high-pressure system that arrives near this date often preempts the Oct. 30 front, chills Halloween and brings down the foliage of the most brittle maples.

October 30: When this cold front moves in late, it brings mild south winds under which to finish harvest. Between today and the arrival of early winter, there should be up to 20 days of relatively benign, dry days for fertilizing, harvesting, wood cutting, planting spring crops, raking leaves, transplanting and digging in spring bulbs.

First Snows in Southwestern Ohio

Oct. 5, 2014: A few snow flurries noticed as I drove to Dayton.

Oct. 12 of 1988 and 2006: The first flurries of the season in my garden.

Oct. 18, 2022: First flurries in the sleet.

Oct. 19, 1989: First light snow in town.

October 23, 2013: This morning, the first snow of the winter, light and wet.

Oct. 27, 2017: Jill sent me photos from the first snow of the year on High Street.

Oct. 30, 1993: The first snow of the year is falling, accumulating up to four inches deep by the roadside, sticking on the newly plowed fields. By the riverbank down in South Glen: the sound of the snow dropping from branches, plopping into the water.

Oct. 31, 2019: First snow of the year, wind gusts up to 30 miles an hour.

Nov. 3, 1991 and 1999: First flurries of the year.

Nov. 5, 1982: The first snow covered Yellow Springs at 5 a.m. with heavy, fat flakes.

Nov. 6, 1988: First snow, one inch, as Late Fall pushes through with a sudden plunge in barometric pressure.

Nov. 11, 1984 and 1986: First snow and first snowball made.

Nov. 13, 2021: First snow in the night, half an inch.

Nov. 15, 2008: The first snowfall came today covering the ground for an hour or so.

Nov. 27, 2018: First snow of the year, accompanied by sandhill cranes.

Nov. 29, 2011: The first snow of the year late this afternoon, the ground covered for a few hours before the wet grass soaked it up. More worms stranded from the earlier rain.

Nov. 30, 2020: First snow, three inches.

December 5, 2007: First snow of the season last night and this morning, four to five inches. The alley bamboo is full of snow, bowing and blocking half my path there. 

Dec. 19, 2009: The first snow of the year covered all the branches this morning, showing off the daffodil spears that had grown up in the warm November. On the news tonight, details about a huge storm moving toward the Northeast.

Dec. 31,1998: The first snow of the year overnight, maybe half an inch.

Journal

It is as bad to study stars and clouds as flowers and stones....

Be not preoccupied with looking. Go not to the object. Let it come to you.

Henry David Thoreau, Journal, Sept. 13, 1852

As the Sun moves across the late autumn sky, it shines further and further into my south-facing window. Paying attention to where and when it enters my house allows me to track the seasons toward and away from winter solstice.

When I watch the sunlight move across my walls, I feel like I am not only following time made visible, but I am also finding myself in relation to the tilt of Earth.

My relationship with the sun is different when I am outside. Out in the yard or the woods or on the road, the Sun is diffuse, has no limits. It shines everywhere, belongs to everything and to every creature. Even the warmth of the Sun on my face on cold mornings seems accidental and impersonal.

But when I am inside watching it on the wall in my room, the Sun feels more intimate. Shaped by the frame of my south windows, its light is not only tame but mine. It has come to me. I am the only one who sees it here now. It is not so vast and almighty as it appears filling the sky. It is not the indifferent prime mover of the day and night.

Instead, it seems a bright blessing and a personal ally against the winter ahead.