I rejoice in the winter landscape, cut to essentials.

Earth and sky are more closely joined. – Harlan Hubbard

Phases of the Bedding Plant Moon and Pollinating Pinetree Moon

Dec. 1: The Bedding Plant Moon is new.

Dec. 8: The moon enters its second quarter.

Dec. 15: The moon is full.

Dec. 22: The moon enters its final quarter.

Dec. 30: The Pollinating Pinetree Moon is new.

The Sun 

Winter solstice occurs at 4:19 a.m. (EST) on Dec. 21. The Sun enters the Deep Winter constellation of Capricorn on the same day. On Dec. 24, the Sun begins to move toward summer solstice, but the days do not actually start to lengthen until Dec. 26.

The Planets

Venus in Capricorn remains the giant Evening Star. Saturn follows Venus in Aquarius in the far west at dusk. Jupiter in Taurus rises at dusk, leading Orion into the winter night. Mars in Cancer follows Orion, coming up before midnight.

The Shooting Stars

The Geminid Meteor Show peaks Dec. 13-14 near Gemini. The Ursid Meteors fall after midnight at the rate of about five to 10 per hour on Dec. 21-22.

 

Weather Trends

The Winter Forecast for 2024 and 2025

Weather history suggests that the cold waves of Early Winter usually cross the Mississippi River on or about Dec. 2, 8, 15, 20, 25 and 29. Snow or rain often occur prior to the passage of each major front.

It is probable that new moon on Dec. 1, lunar perigee on Dec. 12, and full moon on Dec. 15 will bring stronger-than-average storms to the United States. The second new moon on Dec. 30 guarantees that the New Year’s cold front will be bitter.

Lunar perigee on Jan. 7, 2025, prior to full moon on the 13th, will bring storms and deep cold to begin 2025, and new moon on Jan. 29 will combine with lunar perigee on Feb. 2 to bring another major storm at the beginning of the year’s second month. Full moon on Feb. 12 will delay the arrival of Early Spring, which will arrive after new moon on Feb. 28.

The Seasonal Calendar

But let the months go round, a few short months,

And all shall be restored. These naked shoots

Barren as lances, among which the wind

Makes wintry music, sighing as it goes,

Shall put their graceful foliage on again,

And more aspiring and with ampler spread

Shall boast new charms, and more than they have lost. – William Cowper

The Natural Calendar

This is the time during which the second bloom of forsythia flowers typically ends, when witch hazel blossoms wither, and the last of the golden beeches, the willows, Osage and oaks come down. The corn and soybean harvests are usually complete all around the county by this date, and development of winter wheat slows in the cold. New garlic shoots are firm and green, but they’ve stopped growing and remain at their middle-autumn height. The Christmas tree harvest is at its peak, and the last poinsettias have come north.

South-window tomatoes sown in August could be ripening as December arrives. Marigolds, zinnias, impatiens and other bedding plants saved from a hard freeze may still be in flower. The first buds have formed on mother-of-millions. The greenhouse hibiscus blooms, opening before dawn, fading and falling by 3 in the afternoon. Poinsettias, placed in the dark about 17 hours a day through the autumn, should be turning red. In much of the nation, the Season of Earliest Sunset Time starts in the first days of December and continues to midmonth.

Farming and Gardening

Throughout the nation, put in bedding plants under the new moon. Plant bulbs, shrubs and trees in the South and Border states after full moon. In warmer years, established crocus and iris may be pushing up through their mulch in the North.  Increase protection for all plants that break dormancy early by covering with generous amounts of straw.

December lambs and kids may arrive during the moon’s third quarter – even if they are not scheduled to be born exactly at that time.

Do your month’s slaughtering as the moon wanes through its third and fourth quarter. Prune trees and shrubs before the moon turns new.

Almanack Classics

“I’ll Fix Them!”

A Basic Lesson in Human Relations

By S.W. Granger, Rawson, Ohio

This happened years ago when everyone burned wood and coal.

A father and son lived together. They would cut wood for winter, and when they ran out of wood, they would go and take the neighbor’s wood.

When the neighbor found out who was taking his wood, he told his wife, “I’ll fix them!”

So, every night, he would go outside and urinate on the same end of the woodpile that they were stealing from. It wasn’t long before it soaked in.

Then the thieving neighbor told the other neighbor one day, “You know, someone has urinated on my wood, and it sure does smell when we burn it!”

And that was the last time any more wood came up missing.

This Week’s Rhyming Sckrambler

BNU

NNOE

NUSH

ONS

OEN

NDEO

PUNS

NRU

OTN

NUP

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Copyright 2024, W. L. Felker