The cicada’s dry monotony breaks

Over me. The days are bright

And free, bright and free. – Jane Kenyon

The Moon: The Blackberry Moon, full on Aug. 1, reached perigee, its position closest to Earth, on Aug. 2, wanes throughout the period. It enters its final quarter on Aug. 8. Rising in the night and setting in the afternoon, this moon passes overhead in the morning.

The Sun: Even though the night grows longer in August, the percentage of possible sunshine per day increases to the highest of the year.

The Planets: Jupiter, rising in Aries before midnight, is the bright Morning Star overhead at dawn. Saturn in Aquarius rises in the evening and is visible throughout the night, setting in the far west near sunrise.

The Shooting Stars: The Perseid meteors peak Aug. 11-13 in the east an hour or so after midnight. This shower can produce up to 60 meteors in an hour and will not be obscured by the moon.

 

The Stars: Now Libra has moved deep into the west by 11 p.m., with Scorpio following close behind along the horizon. The Northern Cross (or Cygnus, the Swan) is directly overhead and its passage will tell the time of year throughout the autumn until Orion appears in the east once again.

Weather Trends: The cool fronts of Late Summer ordinarily reach the Mississippi River around Aug. 4, 10, 17, 21 and 29. New moon on the 16th could put an end to the worst of the Dog Days. Average temperatures drop approximately one to two degrees a week in August, two to three degrees a week in September. From this point on, the likelihood for highs in the 90s begins a steady decline across the northern tier of states, and the possibility of a high only in the 60s grows stronger.

The Natural Calendar: Ragweed pollen fills the afternoons. Golden and purple coneflowers and white, pink and violet phlox still dominate the gardens. Trumpet vine still curls through the trellises. The pure white virgin’s bower opens. Mums and red stonecrop appear in the dooryards. Prickly mallow, field thistle, clearweed, willow herb and Japanese knotweed blossom in the woods and alleys. Summer apples are half picked. Green acorns fall from their branches. Black walnut foliage thins. Fruit of the bittersweet ripens.  Spicebush berries redden. Robin calls increase throughout the day, short clucking signals for flocking. Hummingbirds, wood ducks, plovers, Baltimore orioles and purple martins start to disappear south.

In the Field and Garden: Plant fall peas. Put out kale and collard sets for November. Reseed the lawn. Get ready to seed or re-seed spring pastures and green manure areas in September or October.

The first ears of field corn are often mature by today and at least a third of the crop is in dent. In northern states, the length of the day falls to 14 hours (the length often associated with estrus in ewes and does) by the middle of August. In the Deep South, the 14-hour span is not reached until the middle of September.

Mind and Body: From city to country, the weather and the ripening land strengthen a sense of anticipation, a feeling that something major is about to happen. Because indeed it is! Wood lots are still green and flowers still fill the roadsides and gardens, but wheat fields are bare, and giant rolls of hay forecast winter. School will soon begin, and the season of autumn sports is getting underway. At least some of these forces influence the emotions of almost everyone.

Almanack Literature

Tippy and Roosty

By Cecelia Winer, Ashland, Ohio

Growing up, we had a dog called Tippy. He had some rat terrier in him and was fearless. He took on all comers.

During the 1940s they had WPA and had men working digging ditches and other things. The men would put their lunch bags close to where they worked. Tippy would creep up, steal the lunches and bring them home to his doghouse, which was situated at the back of the chicken coop.

Once my mom saw this man running into our yard. At first, she thought he was trying to steal chickens. She did not see Tippy sneak into his house. Then she heard the man shouting, “He stole my lunch!”

Tippy was a great guard dog that day, and he stayed quietly ensconced in his house, guarding his sandwich.

During the war, meat was scarce. In the winter, people kept their meat outside in the cold. Many times, my mom would see Tippy dragging a string of hot dogs. One time he was dragging a large ham almost as big as he was.

Our neighbor ran a drycleaners next door, and every morning Tippy would walk to her front door for meat scraps she brought for him. Every day except Sunday; then he would just lie out in the sun.

For Easter my parents got us chicks and we raised one into a rooster. We called it Roosty.

Tippy took on rats almost as big as himself and large dogs. But as Roosty grew up, one day I looked out to see Tippy sitting in the rain. There in the doghouse door stood Roosty.

On warm days Roosty ousted Tippy from his window where the men delivered our coal. The coal pebbles were warm, and that spot was Tippy’s favorite to lie.

Roosty was the bane of Tippy and the young women who walked into work. If they were walking past, Roosty would run behind them and peck their legs, ruining their stockings (which were difficult to buy during the 1940s).

I would hear the women saying “Is he there?” and they would cross the street so they didn’t walk past the ROOSTER.

My father gave Roosty away because he was a nuisance. He gave him to a man he worked with who had a farm. And about three weeks later, the man said that Roosty had been run over.

I think they took a hatchet to him. LOL.

ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK’S 

SCKRAMBLER

MUBP BUMP

LUCPM CLUMP

UDMP DUMP

PUMH HUMP

JPMU JUMP

LUPM LUMP

MUPM MUMP

LUPPM PLUMP

RUTMP TRUMP

PULSM SLUMP

THIS WEEK’S RHYMING SCKRAMBLER

COKL

CKOLC

KOCMS

OLKCF

KCOH

COSK

CKLBO

OPKC

CKOR

NOCKK

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.

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Follow the days of August with Bill Felker’s A Daybook for August that contains all of his daily almanack notes for that month. You can order this and all Bill’s books on Amazon.

Copyright 2023 – W. L. Felker