All through the long, bright days of June

Its leaves grew green and fair,

And waved in hot midsummer’s noon

Its soft and yellow hair. – From John Greenleaf Whittier’s The Corn Song

The Moon: The Strawberry Moon wanes throughout the period, becoming the Wild Black Raspberry Moon on June 18 at 12:39 a.m. It reaches lunar apogee, its benign position farthest from Earth, on June 22.

The Sun: Summer solstice occurs on June 21 at 9:58 a.m. EST. The sun enters the Deep Summer sign of Cancer at the same time. From June 19-23, the sun holds steady at its solstice declination of 23 degrees 26 minutes, and the day’s length remains virtually unchanged.

The Planets: Moving retrograde into Cancer, Venus is still visible at sunset, and Mars, remaining in Cancer, shares the horizon with Venus after dark.

The Stars: By chore time in the early morning, the sky has moved to the way it will appear on an October evening: Hercules is setting, the Summer Triangle shifting into the far west, Pegasus almost overhead, and the harbingers of winter, the Pleiades, appearing on the horizon.

Weather Trends: This week of June always brings an increase in the likelihood of highs in the 90s, and the average percentage of afternoons in the 80s rises above the average percentage for 70s for the first time in the year. Highs in the cold 60s are rare, occurring just 5 percent of the days. This week also brings more sunshine than almost any other week so far in the year: 85 percent of the days have at least partly cloudy skies.

The Natural Calendar: Catalpas and privets and hawthorns and pink spirea bloom now, and the number of fireflies grows in proportion to the number of thistle blossoms in the fields. The first chicory, first daisy fleabane, the first great mullein, the first Asiatic lily and the first tall meadow rue open. The first raspberry reddens, and the first orange trumpet creeper blossoms. Bindweeds and sweet peas color the fences with pastels.

In the wetlands, it is the time for poison hemlock and angelica. In the shade, poison ivy, fire pink and honewort are flowering. At the edge of the forest, wild plants include blue-eyed grass, silver yarrow, yellow sedum, moneywort, fire pink, daisies, yellow sweet clover, wild roses, wild iris, dock and smooth brome grass.  In the garden, blue veronica, yellow coreopsis, deep purple loosestrife and the first wave of the floribunda roses come into flower.

As the morning birdsong quiets, young grackles join their parents to harvest the ripening cherries and mulberries. Painted turtles and box turtles are out laying eggs. Now is the time for insect infestations to reach the economic threshold. Cucumber beetles come to the pumpkins, melons, squash, gourds and cucumbers.

Look for rose chafers and two-spotted spider mites on your rose bushes. Japanese beetles start to attack ferns. Chinch bugs hatch in the lawn, and powdery mildew becomes a problem in the garden phlox. Monarchs, tiger swallowtails, red admirals, sulphurs, blues, question marks, cabbage whites, fold-winged skippers, silver-spotted skippers, tortoiseshells and buckeye butterflies could be arriving at your flowers.

In the Field and Garden: Throughout the country’s midsection, harvest beans and squash, strawberries, pie cherries and the first black raspberries. New Moon time (this week) is favorable for pruning shrubs and trees that flowered earlier in the year. Put in the last of the hot-weather vegetables (like tomatoes, squash, eggplant and peppers). The new waxing Moon also favors the continuing harvest of spring vegetables. Throughout the East and Midwest, lily season creates a crescendo of color that peaks in four to five weeks.

Mind and Body: Sunshine and relatively mild summer temperatures combine with reduced lunar influence to eliminate seasonal stress for most people. The presence of fireflies and the calls of the spring field crickets help to improve the evening almanack horoscope. Winter wheat is golden-green, the corn is growing tall, and if a person only sees what is close at hand, he or she might think that all is well with the world.

Countdown to Late Summer 

• One week until cicadas chant in the hot and humid days

• Two weeks until thistles turn to down

• Three weeks until sycamore bark starts to fall, marking the center of Deep Summer

• Four weeks to the season of singing crickets and katydids after dark

• Five weeks until ragweed pollen floats in the wind 

• Six weeks until blackberries are ready for jam and brandy

• Seven weeks until aster and goldenrod time

• Eight weeks until the season of fall apples begins

• Nine weeks until the corn harvest gets underway

Almanack Classics

A Joke That Backfired

By Myrna Glass, St. Marys, Ohio

This is a true story that happened in my family more than 100 years ago.

My Aunt Meg was a very small – but feisty – woman. Her husband decided to play a joke on her. It backfired, and he had the bruises to prove it!

Aunt Meg was afraid to stay alone at night. One evening, her husband and a friend decided to go ‘coon hunting or something. The friend brought his wife to visit Meg so she wouldn’t be alone.

For some time, the ladies sat visiting quietly by the fire. Suddenly, they were startled by a loud knock at the door.

The frightened ladies called out, “Who’s there?”

They were even more frightened when there was no answer. The knock came again. They finally decided that they had to answer the door.

Aunt Meg, armed with a sturdy stick from the wood-box, stood ready while her friend opened the door.

In walked their husbands.

As Aunt Meg was beating him, her husband cried, “Meg! It’s me, it’s me!”

While continuing the beating, she answered, “I know it, doggone you!”

I’ll bet that he never tried to scare her again!

(This story appeared in the Almanack of May 2005)

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S SCKRAMBLER

EKOY    YOKE

PKEP    JOKE

EPKO    POKE

HOCEK  CHOKE

OPELVM INVOKE

EKOVORP           PROVOKE

KEOVE EVOKE

EOWK WOKE

EKOC COKE

TOKES STOKE

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

PEPRICH

RIPLEPC

RIPIPSL

IDPREP

PEPRIK

ILFPEPR

REPZIP

RRPPEI

PERPIN

KISPEPR

HSPIPRE  

 

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. Yes, you are a genius.

***

Follow the summer with Bill Felker’s A Daybook for July. My daybooks are applicable to the entire Lower Midwest and contain all the nature notes used to create Poor Will’s Almanack. Order yours from Amazon. You can also purchase Bill Felker’s new book of essays, The Virgin Point, there.

Copyright 2023 – W. L. Felker