There is a beautiful spirit breathing now.

Its mellow richness on the clustered trees,

And from a beaker full of richest dyes,

Pouring new glory on the Autumn woods,

And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds,

Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird,

Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales

The gentle Wind, a sweet and passionate wooer,

Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life

Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crimsoned

And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Second Week of Middle Fall

In the Sky

Oct. 23 is Cross-Quarter Day, the halfway mark between autumn equinox and winter solstice. The Sun enters the Late Autumn constellation of Scorpio at the same time.

The waning moon favors the harvest of all crops and vegetables, the pruning of shrubs or trees to retard growth, the killing of weeds, and the planting of garlic cloves and all spring bulbs.

The Orionid meteors appear in Orion during the early morning hours of Oct. 21-22 at the rate of 15 to 30 per hour. 

Phases of the Disappearing Spiders Moon

Oct. 17: The moon is full

Oct. 24: The moon enters its final quarter

The Natural Calendar

The last wild asters pass their prime as spruce trees produce new growth. The heaviest time of Halloween market sales begins today, and woolly bear caterpillars and monarch butterflies intensify activity.

The first tier of leaves is down in most years: black walnuts, locusts, buckeyes, box elders, hackberries, ashes and cottonwoods are usually bare by this date. Almost all wildflowers have gone to seed.

As the canopy thins, hemlock, ragwort, yarrow, waterleaf, violets, wild ginger and sweet Cicely grow back. The slowest raspberries ripen. Sometimes, forsythia and lilacs come into bloom again. Pussy willows that have lost their foliage to leaf miners sometimes make new leaves.

Cicadas die. Japanese beetles complete their season. Daddy longlegs disappear from the undergrowth, and spiders of all kinds move indoors. Damselflies are rare along the rivers now, and darners have left their suburban ponds.

The brown seeds of the beggartick plants stick to your pants. Scattered watercress plants bloom one more time. Henbit that sprouted a month ago is two inches tall. The tips of spruce trees are putting on pale fresh growth. The low October sun brings a golden, second-spring glow to the grass.

The purple New England asters come to the end of their blooming cycle, and asparagus yellows in the garden. A few lance-leaf and zigzag goldenrod still hold on, but the great roadside bloom of the tall goldenrod is finished for the year. Thimble plant heads break up like milkweed pods, and jumpseed seeds disappear into the undergrowth.

The day’s length now falls below 11 hours along the 40th Parallel. Cricket songs grow weaker in the evenings. The steady advance of high-pressure systems across the area accelerates the movement of green herons, sandhill cranes, sandpipers, terns, nighthawks, chimney swifts, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, phoebes, mockingbirds, catbirds, brown thrashers, wood thrushes and vireos. Great flocks of blackbirds and robins migrate down the rivers. Insect numbers decline, and spider webs gradually disappear from the woods.

In the Field and Garden

The sugar beet harvest begins near this date all across the northern states at the same time that grape harvest is done along Lake Erie. The third and final cutting of alfalfa is complete throughout the Midwest (although farmers take a fourth cut in the most favorable years). Winter wheat and winter rye are often in the ground by now.

November’s sales opportunities include turkeys for Thanksgiving. Gourds and dried flowers complement the season at farmers’ markets.

Don’t forget to check and fertilize the berry and rhubarb patches, the horseradish, and the other herbs which will winter over. Start thinking about supplements for your livestock: pastures not only produce less forage in the fall, but the pasture that manages to grow contains less nutrition when soil temperatures drop near 40 degrees.

Do as much planting and harvesting as possible between now and Nov. 5. After that date, the best weather of the year is over, and the chance of precipitation and of cloudy, chilly days increases dramatically.

Watch the sky and the thermometer, and be prepared to store your green tomatoes in boxes between layers of newspaper as frost approaches. Entire pepper plants can be brought indoors in pots and, if kept well-watered, should bear to maturity most of the fruits that are set at the time of digging.

Bedding plant season can begin in a month or two; there is time to purchase a grow light, planting medium and seeds with which to nurture new sprouts for the New Year.

Almanack Classics

The Ghosts Didn’t Get Me....but Daddy Did

By Naomi Bliss, Switzerland County, Ind.

Halloween 1914 was a miserable night, very cold. A chill rain fell, midnight was near.

As silent as a gaggle of ghosts we crept, from the alley to group behind the neighbor’s outhouse which was enormous. A sturdy, well build structure – a four holer!

Many hands reached out to be placed on the building. A whisper said “Go!” and over it went flat on the frozen earth, with the doorknob against the ground.

It was quiet outside, but not inside.

First, a cry of rage followed by volumes of oaths. And then a dim face could be seen peering out one hole.

Without a sound, we all slipped away, and at a safe distance, we gathered and fell into each other’s arms, screeching with laughter.

Sometime later, the neighbor’s son, who had helped us tip over his own outhouse, thought it best to save his father.

So, we all tramped merrily back to the outhouse, set it upright and rescued the man – who showed very little gratitude.

Answers To Last Week’s Sckrambler

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.

NEHCKPE HENPECK

NCKTRTLUEE TURTLENECK

KEBUZ UZBEK

OOEEGNSCK GOOSENECK

DECKRETRQUA QUARTERDECK

CKREW WRECK

CHEPAYCK

PAYCHECK

KCNKRBEAE BREAKNECK

KDECREOF

FOREDECK

ERCHEKC RECHECK

This Week’s Rhyming Sckrambler

KLCHA

LAKC

ABLK

WAKG

HAKW

WAUKQS

LAKT

KLAW

POEHC

WOK

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Copyright 2024, W. L. Felker