The first stage in the progress of spring is the sighting of “firsts”: first bluebird, first robin, first turkey vulture and so forth. After that, quantity counts as much as much as novelty. The number of robins, the number of blackbirds, the number of blooming bulbs, the number of pussy willow catkins emerging take on more and more importance until the next stage of the year arrives, the stage at which all the old first creatures and events and numbers are commonplace and give way to new firsts and new quantities.

Poor Will’s Notebook

LUNAR PHASE AND LORE

   The dark Skunk Cabbage Moon wanes through its final quarter this week, becoming the new Running Maple Sap Moon at 9:51 p.m. on February 13. Rising before dawn and setting in the afternoon, this moon is overhead in the middle of the day.
    As the moon waxes throughout the remainder of the month, the sap should start to flow, reaching its Early Spring peak on February 28, full moon day.
    This is one of the finest lunar planting weeks of the year for flowers and vegetables that produce their fruit above the ground. Put in your seeds in flats under lights and keep them moist and warm.  

WEATHER PATTERNS

     By February 14, chances for highs in the 20s or below fall to only ten percent in the lower Midwest, and by the 15th, chances for temperatures above 50 degrees jump to 40 percent  per day- the highest so far this year. Chances for highs in the 60s suddenly start to increase, too: the 18th brings a 20 percent chance for such warmth.

DAYBOOK FOR THE THIRD WEEK OF LATE WINTER

    February 8: Groundhogs come out of hibernation in milder years. You may see them eating the new grass or digging for roots by the side of the road. Other Zeitgebers (event in nature that tell the time of year) for this week include sleepy flies and cabbage moths emerging in your greenhouse or sunroom, the arrival of red-winged blackbirds in the wetlands, and continued activity of skunks, raccoons and opossums after dark.
    February 9: Sunset now occurs near 6:00 p.m. for the first time since October 12th. Cedar waxwings, horned larks and snow buntings are migrating. Moss grows and flowers on logs in the sun.
    February 10: Under the dark moon, you can plant onions directly in the ground as soon as the soil is properly prepared. Then seek the striped bass that are starting to bite.
    February 11: The cold front due to arrive near this date is expected be relatively weak, foretaste of Early Spring just a week away.
    February 12: The pace of spring quickens, as the sun reaches 40 percent of the way to equinox today. Continue planting and frost seeding throughout the period. Frost seeding is the easiest way to get an early start on filling in bare spaces in your lawn. Just sprinkle seed on the cold ground; the freezing and thawing to come will work the seeds into the ground, and they should sprout in April or May. 
    February 13: Take cuttings to propagate shrubs, trees, and houseplants. In the South, pasture season can be underway by now, and fields are starting to turn a deeper green well into the Border States. Along the Ohio River (and in the sunniest yards), strawberries sometimes have new foliage .
    February 14: You can set out most tender vegetables and flowers on May 1, twelve weeks from today. Prepare equipment to spray fruit trees when high temperatures climb into the 40s next week. Ideally, all winter pruning should be complete as the knuckles of this year’s rhubarb crop push out of the ground.

LIVING WITH THE SEASONS

    Take cuttings to propagate shrubs, trees, and house plants. Under this week’s dark moon, complete winter pruning to retard growth.
    Plan to spray fruit trees between now and the middle of March. Don’t wait too long, or an unseasonable warm spell might start the bloom and insect cycles early.
    Even if you live in the city, plan to tap a maple tree for sap. You need to drill a hole in the trunk, provide some kind of tube for a drain, and an empty jug.
    February 14 is Chinese New Year, and the 16th is Mardi Gras; if you missed selling your lambs or kids to those markets this season, plan to take advantage of them next year.

THE APPROACH OF EARLY SPRING

    The shift in weather that multiplies the signs of spring takes place in the middle of February nine out of ten of the years in my record. Three or four good thaws, sometimes lasting a week apiece, have already come up from the south before then. Bulbs made progress during each of them, foliage rising ever so slowly though the soft ground.
    Sunrise has moved up half an hour since solstice, bird song from 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. Dusk, on a clear day, can go past 7:00 p.m. Cardinals not only sing before dawn, but deep into the afternoon. Peonies come up through the mulch, their deep red tips emerging when blue jays are calling for the first time, and sparrows and starlings are loud and reckless in the middle of mating.
    Depending on the year, growth occurs on ragwort, dock, sweet rocket, asters, winter cress, poison hemlock, sedum, mint, celandine, plantain, poppies, pansies, daffodils, tulips, crocus, aconite, hyacinth, strawberries. All those hardy leaves are expanding a centimeter here or there, such measurements seeming unimportant until they can measure spring, and then there is no insignificant degree. The signs accelerate, accumulate, and become a new season, turning into what they represent by force of numbers.
    Then, what at first looks the same as any winter day is really a day in early spring. The wind is still raw, and the grass and the trees are brown, but the balance has tipped anyway. The thaws are preserved, their effects impervious to the steady progression of cold fronts, and suddenly winter collapses into the pleasure of giving birth.

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Follow the progress of the year with Poor Will’s Almanack for 2010. Mail $16.00 (includes shipping and handling) for each copy to Poor Will, P.O. Box 431, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. To order by credit card, visit poorwillsalmanack.com.

© 2010 - W. L. Felker