Jan. 21-27, 2019

In every year there are days between winter and spring which rightly belong to neither; days when the round of seasons seems to be at a standstill, as though the inner impulse which held on visibly enough through the worst of the hard weather has failed just when it should begin to quicken toward the first of the better times.

-Corners of Old Grey Gardens, 1912

The moon wanes gibbous through its third quarter during the remainder of the period, entering its final quarter on Jan. 27 at 4:10 p.m. Rising in the evening and setting in the morning, this moon passes overhead before dawn. Fish and game should be most active just before sunup as the barometer falls in advance of the Groundhog Day thaw (in the first days of February).

As this month’s supermoon weakens, weather should moderate and seasonal stress should abate considerably. Lunar position will be best for planting of flowers or vegetables next week, so save your seeds until the moon turns new on Feb. 4.

Weather trends

After the January thaw, the likelihood of cooler conditions increases briefly with the arrival of the Jan. 25 cold front. Although highs in the 30s or 40s usually occur before January ends, the first serious cold wave of late winter chills the countryside before temperatures heat up again for the Groundhog Day thaw.

It’s now just a few days until cardinals start to sing before dawn. It’s also:

•Two weeks until doves join the cardinals, and maple sap flows

•Three weeks until the first red-winged blackbirds arrive in the wetlands

•Four weeks to the first snowdrop bloom and the official start of early spring

•Five weeks to crocus season and major pussy willow emerging season

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

•Seven weeks to daffodil time

•Eight weeks to the major wildflower bloom

•Nine weeks until the yellow blossoms of forsythia bushes appear

•10 weeks to tulip season

The natural calendar

Jan. 21: Full supermoon today, plus a total lunar eclipse. And today is the first day of the season of the possibility of 70-degree highs in the lower Midwest, a season that ends on Dec. 6.

Jan. 22: Prickly sweet gum seed balls fall to earth, most of their seeds already consumed by chickadees and sparrows.

Jan. 23: Cardinals begin their mating calls this week of the year, just as average temperatures begin to rise.

Jan. 24: The January thaw typically ends today, chilled by the Jan. 25 cold front.

Jan. 25: When you hear the cardinals, you will know that in Great Britain, hazel catkins are flowering. In milder years, frogs are laying eggs there, too, about the same time that frogs are mating in the South of the United States. In the south of England, newts are returning to ponds about a month before salamanders start to breed here in the lower Midwest.

Also a month ahead of the Ohio Valley, British bumblebees are out looking for the first snowdrops. And the cardinal’s song here means that rooks are nesting and that the song thrush is singing south of London.

Jan. 26: Today is the first day of the season of late winter. Its thaws accelerate the swelling of buds and the blooming of early bulbs. Throughout the country, average temperatures climb 1 degree.

Jan. 27: The Season of the 10-Hour Day, during which the day’s length remains more than nine hours, 59 minutes but shorter than 11 hours, begins Jan. 27 and continues through Feb. 22 in the Ohio Valley region.

Field and garden

In the final days of January, average temperatures start to rise almost all over North America. The coyotes know it; they have begun to look for mates. Scout your property for signs of predators that will soon be interested in your lambs, goat kids and chickens.

Pink or yellow hibiscus plants should be flowering in your south windows now. Varieties of this genus can be grown from seed in the spring and summer, brought indoors in the fall and bloom throughout the winter.

Keep chickens away from goat feed and mangers to prevent the transfer of coccidiosis, which may cause abortion.

Best of the Almanac

Always Look Where You’re Going

By Eunice Hicks

Willard, Ohio

One evening when she came back from the outhouse, Mom told Dad, “Tommie, there’s got to be another outhouse built.” Dad said then he would build another one beside the old one. He would tear the other one down later.

So one morning, Mom and I and little sister Polly walked up to the barn, and Mom found out one of her hens hatched out a gang of little chickens, or bitties, as Mom said. Mom said, “I can’t let the hen and little bitties stay at the barn. Some varmint will get them,” meaning some animals.

So she said, “I know where I will put them,” and she took them to the old outhouse beside the new one – but she didn’t tell Dad.

Then one morning early, Dad walked out to the outhouse and he went into the old outhouse instead of the new one. That old hen flogged him so badly, he didn’t take time to get his pants all the way up!

He came back to the house and said, “Rose, why did you put the old hen and her chicks in that old outhouse? Darn near scared the wits out of me!”

Mom laughed and laughed and said to Dad, “The next time, look where you’re going!”