At the end of the first month of spring, the yang ethers of heaven are said to waft down while the yin ethers of earth arise. They commingle harmoniously, and as a result grasses and trees begin to sprout…. In spring, nature reconnects the two existential essences and everything surges back to life.
Liza Dalby

THE ASTRONOMICAL OUTLOOK FOR THE FIFTH WEEK OF EARLY SPRING

   The Shining Grackle Moon wanes throughout the remainder of the week, coming into its final quarter on March 18 12:47 p.m. and turning into the Singing Toad Moon on March 26 at 11:06 a.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this moon is overhead at lunchtime. By the time it moves overhead in the middle of the night, it will have stirred the passionate American toads to intone their high-pitched mating songs.
    Equinox brings equal day and night at exactly 7:44 a.m. (EDT) March 20. On the same day, the sun enters the stars of Aries, the constellation that completes the cycle of Early Spring.
 

NOTEBOOK

    When I took inventory around the yard. Everything had changed since my last accounting at the end of February: Now crocus and snowdrops full bloom, two jonquils open, deadnettle, small flowered cress, and blue eyes all blossoming, first flowers on several forsythia bushes, mid-season crocus budded, daffodils eight to ten inches tall and well budded - some floweirng, day lilies five inches, tulips ten inches, ramps three inches, lungwort up with one-to-two-inch leaves, waterleaf with one-inch leaves, Canadian thistles three inches, peonies three inches and leafing, red quince leafing and buds cracking, rhubarb and hollyhock leaves to two inches, bleeding hearts up two inches, grape hyacinth seven inches, resurrection lilies six inches, buds cracking on the serviceberry trees, buds cracking on the lilacs, pussy willows coming out all the way, privet and mock orange bushes leafing, buds reddening on the crab apple, new garlic mustard sprouts coming on.