Why do we love them, these last days of something
Like summer, of freedom to move in few clothes,
Though frost has flattened the morning grass?
They tell us we shall live forever. Stretched
Like a rainbow across day’s end, my shadow
Makes a path from my feet; I am my path.

John Updike, from “Long Shadow”

The Hummingbird Flocking Moon, new on the 20th, waxes throughout the week, entering its second quarter at 6:42 a.m. on August 27. Rising in the morning, moving directly overhead in the middle of the afternoon, this thin crescent moon lies over Dayton in the evening.

August 22 is Cross-Quarter Day, the day that marks the sun’s halfway point (a declination of a little more than 11 degrees, 50 minutes) to autumn equinox. Now the summer’s leisurely progress towards winter quickens, and shadows lengthen twice as quickly as they did in July.

The sun rises close to 7:00 a.m. this week, just like during the first week of March (before Daylight Savings Time begins), and the day’s length moves toward 13 hours, almost an hour lost from the morning and an hour lost from the evening since solstice. Average temperatures are down four degrees from their peak in July.

Venus now rises in Gemini several hours before dawn, following Orion out of the east. Red Mars moves ahead of Orion in Taurus, almost overhead by the time the sky brightens. Far behind Mars, Saturn in Leo paces the rising sun. Jupiter plays with the moon in the west after dark.

JOURNAL
Crickets were still singing when I went outside at 6:00 a.m. (EDT) Doves started at 6:22, cardinals at 6:29, crows at 6:42, crickets quieting as the sky lightened. The yard silent by 6:55. Then at 7:12, a squirrel started to whine and chatter.

At South Glen, jumpseeds and touch-me-nots are in full bloom. Ragweed, oxeye, heal-all, showy coneflowers, wingstem, and ironweed full in the fields. Many milkweed pods fully developed, and some wood nettle flowers have turned to green seed clusters. First autumn violet found blooming in the path beyond where the old barn used to stand. All the white vervain is gone. Hickory nuts common on the path now. Pokeweed berries are dark and soft. Some brown acorns seen. At the covered bridge, burdock, a few tall bellflowers, agrimony, hog peanuts, wild lettuce flowering. Asters budding.

Lizard’s tail dropping its foliage into Yellow Springs Creek, damselflies hunting in the pink smartweed. Joe Pye weed almost all brown, knotweed just beginning to bloom, wild cucumber fruits an inch long. Jumpseeds have started to jump, and the first aster of the year is open.

In the alley, the large blue bindweed flowers are all open along the fences. Tall coneflowers are still bright full bloom; some ragweed plants have lost their pollen. Jimmy’s black walnut trees continue to turn and shed. Driving from Beavercreek this morning, I noticed a number of cottonwood trees yellowing. And even though the high is supposed to reach 91 this afternoon, the air feels and smells like autumn.

At home, peach leaves drift down into the dahlias, knotweed half in bloom, new mullein sprouting in the iris bed, virgin’s bower opening on the trellis, stonecrop coming into bloom by the front porch.

One monarch came to the zinnias this afternoon. Bi-wing butterflies play in the sun through the day. A tree cricket seen in the bathroom tonight, a pale, thin katydid-like creature.