Poor Will’s Clark County Almanack: Early spring arrives

The sun’s eyes are painting fields again:

Its lashes with expert strokes

Are sweeping across the land.

A great palette of light has embraced the earth. — Hafiz of Shiraz

The Almanack Horoscope

Moon Time: The Lenten Rose Moon darkens until it becomes the new Maple Flower Moon at 9:58 a.m. on Feb. 26.

Sun Time: The sun reaches a declination of 9 degrees, 31 minutes on the 24th of February, 60 percent of the way to equinox.

Planet Time: This is the last week during which Venus is the evening star. It will disappear from view for several weeks in March.

Star Time: Arcturus, the daffodil star, rises from the east after 10 p.m. The house-shaped constellation, Cepheus, hugs the northern horizon, and Orion sinks deeper into the west, taking the coldest winter weather (and seasonal stress) with it.

Weather Time: The Feb. 27 Front: This front is often more gentle than the Feb. 24 front, but this year, new moon on the 26th is likely to strengthen the cold of Snowdrop Winter.

The March 3 Front: As the last front of February moves toward New England, mild temperatures occur more often than any time during the first three weeks of March. Chances for highs above 60 surge along the 40th Parallel and even into the Dakotas. Skies often clear with the passage of the March 3 high, but then they darken quickly as the low pressure anticipates the March 5 front with showers or snow.

Zeitgebers: Events in Nature that Tell the Time of Year: As the days lengthen and autumn's windfall apples dissolve into the ground, woodcocks, canvasback ducks and rusty blackbirds join red-winged blackbirds.

Newborn wolf spiders look for prey in the warmest fields. The earliest mosquitoes bite. The mounds of ants rise from cracks in sidewalks heated by the sun. In streams and ponds, water striders mate.

Eric Elwell: Spring-like warm kick starting growing season across U.S.

After Snowdrop Winter (which often strikes between Feb. 23 and 27), ducks and geese mark ownership of the more favorable river sites for nesting. Migrant robins join the robin flocks that overwintered in the woods.

When you notice the fat blossoms of midseason crocuses, look for the following sequence throughout the month ahead: bright blue squills, delicate yellow jonquils, full-size daffodils, then purple hyacinths, then pale wood hyacinths and pushkinias.

Farm and Garden Time: Openings in the siding of your home and outbuildings hould be closed up before yellow jackets and carpenter bees come out to nest.

Lunar position is ideal this week for seeding hardy vegetables in flats for setting out in late March. Also take cuttings to propagate shrubs, trees and houseplants; experiment with forsythia, pussy willow, hydrangea and spirea. Order seeds for spring planting. Transplant flowers and vegetables that you started under lights.

Marketing Time: Feb. 28 is Mardi Gras, and so it is really time to get ready for the Easter (April 16) Market: Save your newly weaned, milk-fed lambs and kids, weighing about 25 to 45 pounds for this market. Also plan ahead for New Year's celebration (April 13-17) for immigrants from Cambodia, Thailand and Laos The Asian market often favors sheep and goats in the 60 to 80-pound live-weight range.

Mind and Body Time: The moon darkens throughout the period, becoming new on the 26th, producing a spike in seasonal affective disorders, an increase in the chances for a return of wintry conditions and a less than favorable horoscope (time watch). Be alert for more health changes as the weather and the landscape undergo a dramatic transformation in the weeks ahead. Continue to offset early spring blues by working or working out side, planting seeds in flats for setting out in April and May.

Creature Time (for fishing, hunting, feeding, bird watching): Fish as the barometer falls before the cold fronts of Feb. 27 and March 3. The moon will be overhead in the daytime during this period, providing a little extra motivation for fish, livestock and people to feed in the light. The predawn robin chorus will begin within two weeks, so be on the lookout for the arrival of large flocks near crab apple trees. Other migrants, such as grackles, sometimes move with the robins.

Journal

The thaw continues, another day in the 60s, all the snow finally gone. I heard the first cardinal at 7:05, and grackles, the first of the season, were at the feeder by 7:45.The snowdrops are up, buds showing. Daffodil spears have pushed an inch through the Osage leaves that were left in the garden.

Foliage is emerging from one primrose plant by the redbud tree. Many of the Lenten rose stalks were broken by the ice storm of a few weeks ago, but the buds show under the drooping stems. Pussy willows are all half emerged.

At the park, a few violet hepatica leaves were visible, surrounded by leaves. The river was high from snowmelt.

Tonight, I talked with Rosemary and Jim. Rosemary’s aconites had bloomed two days ago, and this afternoon she and Jim had seen a cloud of buzzards, “hundreds of buzzards” circling the southeast part of the county.

About the Author