O, new Dawn,
Shining with enduring Light,
Sun of Equilibrium:
Come and brighten
Us who wait in Darkness,
In the Shadow of Mortality.

“O” Antiphon for Winter Solstice

    The Bedding Plant Moon, new on December 27,  comes into its second quarter at 6:56 a.m. January 4. Perihelion, the point at which the earth and the sun are closest to one another, occurs on the same day at 10:00 a.m. Parallel with the growth of the moon this week, the day's length follows the "O" Antiphon of Solstice, lengthening steadily toward spring.  The waxing moon, overhead in the evening, will favor viewing of the Quadrantid meteors throughout the week. Look for these shooting stars after midnight in the eastern sky near bright Arcturus.

NOTEBOOK FOR THE BEDDING PLANT MOON
    The Bedding Plant Moon watches over the earliest sprouts of 2009, encouraging precocious coleus, pansies, geraniums and begonias with its waxing tide. An inventory for the New Year complements the lunar phase, so many plants now seeding or bowing as if to set their seeds.
    In the Stafford Street alley where I walk each morning, tall coneflower stalks have collapsed around the telephone pole. In my south garden of my yard, the white boneset has toppled over, and the small white asters, their seed heads empty, are leaning toward the aging Osage fruits. In the pond outside my window, the swamp rushes lie with the Lizard’s tail flat across the water.
    The hydrangea heads are drooping in the north garden, and the Jerusalem artichokes have fallen over. Grasses are pale and bent. Hoary goldenrod and brittle great ragweed have broken. Chicory stalks are leaning. Pokeweed, hollow and empty, rattles in the wind. The snow and the overwintering robins pull off the honeysuckle berries. Winterberry branches are drooping to let down their fruit. Bittersweet hulls continue to split away from their branches.
    The evergreen foliage of the hardiest herbs and flowers collapses tight against the frozen but nurturing ground: Sweet rocket, garlic mustard, ragwort, celandine, poppies, thistles, chives and parsley crouch in wait like new seeds for the Shining Grackle Moon of February and the Singing Toad Moon of March.