Come, we’ll abroad: and let’s obey the proclamation made for May, and sin no more, as we have done by staying. But, my Corinna, come, let’s go a-Maying.

Robert Herrick

In the Sky

Saturn in Aquarius rises in the middle of the night and is the earliest of the Morning Stars. Then Mars in Pisces follows Saturn just before Venus and Jupiter share the constellation Aries as the two largest and brightest Morning Stars (Venus the biggest and brightest of all). 

On May 9, the Sun reaches three-fourths of the way to summer solstice. It enters the Early Summer sign of Gemini on May 21.

The Moons of May..

May 1: The Tadpole Moon enters its final quarter.

May 7: The Honeybee Swarming Moon is new.

May 15: The moon enters its second quarter.

May 23: The moon is full.

May 30: The moon enters its final quarter.

Weather Trends

The cold fronts of Late Spring usually cross the Mississippi on or about May 2, 7, 12, 15, 21, 24 and 29. Tornadoes, floods or prolonged periods of soggy pasture are most likely to occur within the following windows:  May 3 – 12 and May 17 – 24.

New moon on May 7 and lunar perigee on May 5 are likely to bring frost. Full moon on the 23rd (the Last-Frost  Moon)will increase the chance of storms in the month’s third week and threaten a late freeze. The last days of May and the first week of June are often soaked by the Strawberry Rains.

The Natural Calendar

Peonies are budding, garlic mustard, celandine and buckeyes flower. All the dandelions go to seed. 

Bees, flies and mosquitoes become peskier. Worms breed in the wet earth, and the first young grass snakes hatch and explore the undergrowth.

Redbuds complement the last of the crab apples as the land gets ready for May: wild phlox, wild geranium, wild ginger, celandine, spring cress, sedum, golden Alexander, thyme-leafed speedwell, garlic mustard, and common fleabane are budding and blooming. 

Ducklings and goslings are born by the lakes and rivers; warblers move north.

The Milky Way fills the western horizon as Orion sets just behind the sun. Now the middle of the night’s sky are in their prime spring planting positions, Castor and Pollux to the west, Leo with its bright Regulus directly overhead, and Arcturus dominating the east. 

Black tadpoles swim in the backwaters.  Bass move to the shallows. Great brown May bugs begin their evening flights. In the woods, nodding trilliums are blossoming.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds arrive at local feeders. There are buds on the black raspberries, mock orange, and mulberries. Star of Bethlehem and wood hyacinths have come up in the lawn. Nettles are waist high along the fencerows. 

The S.A.D. Stress Index

May brings an easing of seasonal affective disorder for most people in the Northern Hemisphere. The summer-like day’s length, the gentle weather of spring, and the gradually decreasing cloud cover, contribute to the start of the least stressful period of the year. 

 

Countdown to Summer

• One week until clover blooms

• Two weeks to the great warbler    migration through the Lower Midwest

• Three weeks to strawberry pie 

• Four weeks until the first orange daylilies blossom

• Five weeks until roses flower

• Six weeks until the first mulberries are sweet for picking and cottonwood cotton drifts in the wind.

• Seven weeks until wild black raspberries ripen

• Eight weeks until fledgling robins peep in the bushes

• Nine weeks until cicadas chant in the hot and humid days

• Ten weeks until thistles turn to down

In the Field and Garden

The high leaf canopy casts the first shade on the flower and vegetable garden. It’s time to be planting in the sunniest part of your property.

Haying is often underway below the Ohio River. Some orchard grass and rye may be ready to harvest in southern Ohio. Transition your livestock slowly from last year’s old hay to this year’s fresh hay. 

 Fight armyworms and corn borers. Attack carpenter bees around the barn.

Almanack Literature

“On the Longevity of Fish”

Newspapers in the 19th century often tried to pad their news with strange facts and figures. On November 30, 1871, the Celina Journal published the following curious information.

“Fish have great tenacity of life. It is believed that the carp has attained the age of 150, and the pike a still greater age. In fact, a pike was caught in a lake in south Germany in 1497 on which was found a ring bearing this inscription: ‘I am the fish which was first of all put into this lake by the hands of the Governor of the Universe, Frederick II, 5th of October1230.’ The fish weighed 350 pounds and was nineteen feet long.”

“An Amazing Jump”

A 19th century news “exchange” sent newspaper subscribers all manner of odd material. Here’s something from August of 1887:

“An Eastern newspaper reports that “an eight-ounce green frog has jumped an amazing 94 feet. But it turns out that the amphibian, startled by the approach of a bird, accidently leapt off a cliff above the Hudson River.” Exchange, August, l887

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