Old Tater's Almanac

June 24

Nativity of St. John the Baptist~~Midsummer Day

For one week now the length of the days has been 14 hrs. 24 mins., the longest days of 2008. But the sun will continue to set at its latest until July 6, so Tater says, Stretch, breathe, watch the bees and enjoy midsummer.

From William Cullen Bryant:

Go forth under the open sky/And list to nature's teachings.

Or observe from your back porch. Tater's Quick Quiz: What do you see in both of these pictures? Look closely.

Jupiter is appearing earlier at night, and the hot humid weather of earlier in the month have gone away, and the days are sunny and showery and nights are cool.

"Perhaps you have felt [the truth of your essential goodness] on some rare day in early summer, when you have been alone in a wood on a blue-bell carpet, and your eyes, wandering to the hedge-wall, have seen it white with may; all around you there has been a silence--a silence that strikes like a blow; and suddenly it ceases to be silence for the birds are singing, and you wonder how long that music has been there without your noticing it. You are right away from the world...."

Ernest Raymond, Through Literature to Life: an Enthusiasm and an Anthology, 1928

Tater will work on his crossword puzzle now, while Star Cat watches for jays.

March Comes In

... with its brezzes loud and shrill, and the etagerie on the front porch falls over, startling the cats indoors, while a long branch of white pine clanks onto the roof of the car and the windsocks are flying straight out. Suddenly, it seems, the bulbs are all blooming -- iris reticulata, snowdrops, daffodils, crocus, two colors of grape hyacinth, and one Forsythia blossom. The Old Farmer's Almanac announces St. David's Day, St. Piran, St. Perpetua, Daylight Savings Time, then Pure Monday, Palm Sunday, the vernal equinox, and Easter. Surely the non-Christian world has observances in this month as well, but they're not in the OFA. There's a lot going on in the world, but it's good to look at what's happening in right around you.

So I'm putting up this picture of my vade mecums, and here comes Nanci Griffith on my iTunes, singing "Just Once In A Very Blue Moon." The whole week's been minor coincidences, most not recorded, and so it goes. The almanacs are basic to me and go way back. One here is the Golden Books edition I grew up with and imprinted on (I lost the original and found a copy dedicated to Mary Patricia G...., from Blanche and Fred, in 1948). The blue one, Eric Utne's Cosmo Dogood's Urban Almanac, was a terrific annual for a few annums, and while it's published no more I still refer to it. The third is the basic OFA (No.CCXV) wherein you can find the tides, sunrise and sunset times, visible planets, moon phases, and saints' days. Great stuff for daily life.

Oh -- the coincidence mentioned above -- it's the Blue Moon. My Old Farmer's Almanac shows (but doesn't tell) me that May is a month with a Blue Moon. It will be on the 31st. Watch for more. Since we couldn't see the first F.M. of the month, it would be good to see the second.