Nothing is foreign; Parts relate to whole
One all-extending, all preserving Soul
Connects each being, greatest with the least
Made Beast in aid of Man, and Man of Beast

Alexander Pope

THE ASTRONOMICAL OUTLOOK
IN THE THIRD WEEK OF MIDDLE FALL

   The Buzzard Migration Moon waxes through its second quarter this week, becoming full on November 2 at 2:14 p.m. This week’s moon will be overhead after sunset.
     Daylight Savings Time ends at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 1. The Gallatin County day begins to shrink more quickly now, losing two minutes every 24 hours, as November takes almost an hour from the day’s length.

THE WEATHER

    Normal average high temperatures continue their decline through the week, and you can expect November's temperatures to keep falling one degree every 50 hours. With averages plummeting a total of 14 degrees in the next 30 days, count on around ten mornings at freezing or below.
After the November 6th weather system comes to Warsaw, chances for highs in the 70s drops sharply.

THE LAST WEEK OF MIDDLE FALL

    The week just past and the week to come are among the most dramatic of the year. Thirty days ago, the woods were green. Ten days ago, the leaves were at their peak; today, most of them are gone or ready to come down. The natural year is almost over; the storms that bring an end to Middle Fall will finish it.
The sun could shine another week, but forty days before solstice, winter clouds usually move over the Lower Midwest, staying until April. The overcast skies are likely to bring rain a third of the next 30 days, and snow or sleet is ordinarily recorded on between one and four occasions before December 1st. Winds now rise to their winter speed, an average of nearly 15 miles an hour.

    Cabbage worms still eat the cabbages and kale, but the seasons of tomatoes, beans, eggplant, and squash are over. Some years, houseflies still get in the back door. The last crickets sing in the milder afternoons and nights. A few butterflies still hunt for flowers. Grasshoppers and woolly bear caterpillars are still common.  Small tan moths play in the sun. But the last robins and doves follow the valleys south. Buzzards leave the sky until the second week of March. All the other major migrations end within a few days.    
Sometimes the maple and white mulberry leaves that survived October drop in a day. The ginkgoes do the same; they can shatter overnight into a shining circle below their limbs. Willows, though, are only half turned. Bradford pears are still green, prolonging an illusion of September. Silver maples seem to be untouched by the radical shift in the season; they hold until the nights go into the teens. Dogwoods will be pink, magnolias gold, oaks red-orange for a few days longer.  Beneath them, privet and spicebush  will remain strong throughout much of the month.

    This last week of Middle Fall, mums keep blossoming in the perennial garden. In the fields and woods, the last autumn violets are still blooming beside a few chicory, queen Anne's lace, thyme-leafed speedwell, mallow,  the final asters and one or two stalks of goldenrod. Wild geraniums, thistles,  and cinquefoil can be growing back. Sometimes a parsnip is ready to bloom. Garlic mustard, sweet cicely, Virginia creeper, burdock, red clover, waterleaf, ground ivy, celandine, sweet rocket, dock, leafcup have also revived, looking ahead six months to Middle Spring.