Below Böotes thou seest the Virgin
An ear of corn held sparkling in her hand

Aratos

NOTES FOR THE THIRD WEEK OF LATE SUMMER
THE THIRTY-NINTH WEEK OF THE NATURAL YEAR
CROSS-QUARTER WEEK
WHEN THE SUN ENTERS THE SIGN OF VIRGO
    The Wild Plum Moon waxes throughout the period, becoming completely full at 1:05 p.m. on August 24. Rising in the evening and setting before dawn throughout most of the week, this moon is overhead hrough the night.
    Now the Milky Way cradles Cygnus in the east night sky. Below the Swan, Aquila spreads from Altair. Almost overhead, Vega is the brightest star. Due south swims Delphinus, the Dolphin, and in the west, Virgo is setting below Böotes and its brightest star, Arcturus.
    August 22 is Late Summer's Cross Quarter Day, the halfway mark to autumn equinox. Having dropped below the celestial equator in the first week of Late Summer, the sun leaves the stability of Leo and enters the more volatile sign of Virgo, the first of the most violent periods of change in the second half of the year.
    At solstice on June 21, the day’s length along the 40th Parallel was 15 hours and one minute. As the sun moved through Cancer (June 21 – July 22), the night grew by almost half an hour; while the sun passed through Leo (July 22 – August 22), the night expanded twice as quickly. Between now and equinox (September 22), night increases by an hour and a quarter, the total reduction of daylight by the time the sun enters Libra -  a little less than three hours.
     Average temperatures along the 40th Parallel  rise in Cancer, reaching their peak of 75 (the average of a high of 85 and a low of 65) as Leo begins. Then, in the second week of Leo, the averages begin to fall slowly, reaching 72 by the time the sun enters Virgo, which takes the temperatures to 65.
    At the transition between Leo’s great plateau of heat and color and Libra’s sudden collapse of the leaves, Virgo brings the corn harvest,  and all the garden vegetables pass their prime. The latest flowers of the summer - the burr marigold, zigzag goldenrod, tall goldenrod, Jerusalem artichoke, broad-leafed swamp goldenrod and small-flowered asters, virgin’s bower and New England asters and autumn crocus – bloom and decay. Peaches, blackberries, second-crop raspberries, plums and elderberries sweeten, then close their seasons.
    At the approach of Libra and equinox, the soybean fields turn yellow.  Wood nettle seeds are black. Wingstem and ironweed, which overwhelm the South Glen paths in August, complete their cycles. Buckeyes pop from their hulls. More hickory nuts and more acorns come down. The huge pink mallows of the wetlands die back, heads black, leaves disintegrating. Scattered in the pastures, the milkweed pods are full, straining, ready to open. Mullein stalks stand bare like cacti.
    The first goldenrod is brown.  White vervain is gray, streaked with maroon, tattered, laced from insects. Boneset is rusting. Beggarticks are ready to stick to your clothing. Roadside sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes suddenly wither. Black walnut trees are bare.