July 9th
The 190th Day of the Year

Now is the high tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay.

James Russell Lowell

Sunrise/set: 6:14/9:06 Day's Length: 14 hours 52 minutes
Average High/Low: 85/64 Average Temperature: 74
Record High: 105 - 1936 Record Low: 50 - 1901

Weather
There is a ten percent chance for temperatures of 100 or above, 35 percent for 90s, fifty percent for 80s. Rain falls half the days in my record, but the sun appears for much of the time nine years in ten. Most nights are warm : 95 percent of them are in the 60s or 70s. And tonight begins a two-week period during which lows in the 50s occur less frequently than at any other time of the year.

Natural Calendar
Long, fresh, red seedpods hang from locust branches. Thistle down and tufts of meadow goatsbeard float across the fields. Among the many wildflowers, find golden showy coneflowers, pale blue campanula, purple coneflowers, monarda, germander, skullcap, fogfruit, great Indian plantain, fringed loosestrife, bouncing bets, daisy fleabane, moth mullein, leafcup, lopseed, hobblebush, wood mint, tall bell flower, great mullein, small-flowered agrimony, tick trefoil, velvet leaf, trumpet creeper, and jimson weed in bloom. Throughout the whole country, more wildflowers blossom now than at any other time of year.

Daybook
1981: The last raspberry picked today.

1983: Orton Trail: Wild petunia, Queen Anne’s lace, yarrow, tiger lilies, butterfly weed, teasel, moth mullein, daisies, cinquefoil, milkweed, thimbleweed, wild lettuce in bloom Staghorn sumac is red and velvety.

1984: Covered Bridge: lopseed only about a week old, more buckeyes turning. Lizard's tail with flowers about ten days old, coneflower with small buds. Thistle down in the Dog Day breeze.

l985: Covered Bridge: Each year, certainty of great mullein, and white vervain, bergamot, yarrow, sow thistle, dayflower, enchanter's nightshade, creeping bell flower, butterfly weed, Queen Anne's lace, St. John's wort, bouncing bet, cinquefoil, milkweed, wild lettuce, hobblebush, leafcup, lopseed, tall nettle, black-eyed Susan, lizard's tail, thimbleweed. In the greenhouse, mother-in-law’s tongue and aloe are sending up flower spikes.

1986: Pair of quail and a rare indigo bunting seen. The first woolly bear caterpillar crossed the road near Wilberforce.

l989: Starlings cackle in the back trees, cardinals quiet, sparrows loud. Last pint of black raspberries picked. Mother-in-law’s tongue full bloom.

1993: First cicada heard today. Swallowtails haven't been to the garden since the sweet Williams died back. Very first red phlox flower opens along the north hedge, first rose of Sharon noticed. Euclea delphinii, small brown moth with emerald green markings,
found in the car, identified from Holland's Moths.

1995: The first rose of Sharon opened yesterday. Mid-season hostas have been in bloom three to five days.

1996: The first pink phlox flowered in the south garden today. The days continue cool. It's the mildest July that I remember.

1997: The roses completed their first phase of flowering last week, now lie dormant just as the Japanese beetles emerge.

1998: The Asiatic lilies have been done blooming for a week or more now; the Orientals, yellows and oranges, take their place. The gooseneck has been flowering since the first of the month, and the showy coneflowers have been opening for the past few days. Gay feather, purple coneflowers, Heliopsis and the pond’s purple loosestrife are in early full bloom. Red and violet bergamots, like the day lilies, seem to be past their peak. Every primrose is gone, and the mallow thins quickly. Daisy fleabane holds on late, the leaves at its base weathering. This morning, no chorus of robins heard, only the doves and cardinals.

2000: Red bergamot is still full and strong. In the pond, the three-petaled small water plantain has started to open in the afternoons, stays open through dusk. Hollyhock foliage now badly disfigured by leaf miners.

2001: The big blue hosta is done flowering now, but the south garden is in full bloom, zinnias dominating the yard, purple loosestrife overrunning the pond. One osage fruit, about a third developed, found in the grass.

2002: Central Canada: Brome, timothy, rye grass, Canadian thistles, pink-flowered spurge, fireweed all in bloom.

2005: The morning bird chorus is softer. By a 4:45 (EST), the robins are still singing, but far fewer of them than a month ago. Cardinals and doves call, but the early summer excitement is gone.

2006: Cardinals strong this morning from 4:18 (EST) on. Robins soft but still there. Doves come in before 5:00. First cicada of the summer heard this afternoon. Gall noticed on a goldenrod plant; how early do they come?

2007: Returned from a four-day trip to Madison, Wisconsin, a last family hurrah before Maggie and Mike leave for Ecuador – and Rachel for the Marshall Islands. Landscape very uniform throughout with the exception of full bloom parsnips in Wisconsin and wheat fields still uncut (the dividing line seems to be about Rockford). Some cornfields are tasseling in the north as well as near Yellow Springs. Thistledown everywhere, but a few patches of Canadian thistles are still purple. In Madison, where the heat has been as unseasonably warm as here, the gardens are about at the same stage as those at home, with lilies in full flower, and Joe Pye even a little ahead of ours. When we got home, I found our purple phlox and the three-petaled water plantain in bloom, rose of Sharon becoming widespread. (I start to wonder if its flowering has become earlier, if the climate really is warming somewhat.)

July 10th
The 191st Day of the Year

I often rode through the hours of evening and night along the country roads, taking pleasure in the night, in the nocturnal sounds so common to the summer evenings -- the lowing of cattle, the barking of dogs, the crying of whippoorwills and killdeers, the calling of frogs, the stridulations of katydids and crickets -- and in the perfumes of the darkened countryside -- the fragrance of clover and cut hay, the pungence of mare's tails and other weeds, the cool exhalation of deep woods, and that strangely fertile musk of corn, of leaves as well as of bloom, which pervades the air in midsummer and holds to it for weeks.

August Derleth

Sunrise/set: 6:15/9:05 Day's Length: 14 hours 50 minutes
Average High/Low: 85/64 Average Temperature: 75
Record High: 103 - 1936 Record Low: 48 - 1963

Weather
The likelihood of a high in the 90s today is 45 percent, with another 45 percent for 80s, and ten percent for 70s. The sun appears 90 percent of the days, but showers occur almost one day in two. Nights are typically warm, mild 50s occurring only once in a 15 years.

Natural Calendar
New generations of crickets are born; they will start their chorus on the 25th of July. New cabbage butterflies cluster on the lavender and purple loosestrife. Wood nettle and touch-me-nots dominate the darker woods. Ironweed has purple bud clusters. Robin calls become quiet clucking sounds. Red and violet bee balm and the mallows pass their peak.

Daybook
1986: Cardinal sings at 5:35 a.m., then is quiet for the rest of the morning. First woolly bear caterpillar of the season seen crossing the road near Wilberforce.

1988: Cicadas finally start to sing as the wind picks up at the bottom of a low pressure trough. Drought deepening. Alfalfa hay has doubled in price, up to $4.00 a bale. Lois is selling off lambs because of the cost of feed. Only a little stunted corn tasseling along the roadsides. Soybeans only six to nine inches high. Aspens and poplars yellowing, buckeyes along Grinnell turning red. Redbud trees wilting, some multiflora rose bush foliage all brown.

1993: First yellow coneflower completely open in the south garden. Purple coneflowers now in early bloom in the east garden. Yucca in its last days. Some lilies gone, many full flower, especially the bright yellow. First red phlox opens in the afternoon.

1997: Garlic dug today at Mrs. Bletzinger’s, 160 heads, half of them good size. Digging time about right, heads tight and only touched a little with black streaks of mold. Day lilies and Asiatic/Oriental lilies are in full bloom now. The giant yellow oriental lilies by the peach tree have started to open. No cicadas yet. I found a common sooty-wing butterfly on the achillea this morning. He must have been cold because he let me count the spots on his shiny black wings.

1998: I’m feeling energized. Is it the change of color of the leaves or the scent of the air, new anticipation, a shift in the season, a hint of fall?

1999: White phlox open in the yard.

2000: Very first white phlox opened in the south garden. Teasel full bloom now on the way to Xenia, and yuccas are almost gone throughout the county. On Fairfield Pike, catalpa trees show long green bean pods. The day was hot and humid, and, for the first time this year, the Japanese beetles finally appeared in sizable numbers all over the Virginia creeper, the roses, and the ferns. This was also the first day of the full cicada chorus.

2001: Astilbe season is done, all its pink tufts turned to seed. The heads of lizard’s tail, still white and soft a week ago, are stiff and brown. Their season was about a month; it went so quickly. First cicadas heard today.

2002: In the waterfront park at Thunder Bay, Ontario, a Yellow Springs May: Timothy still sweet to chew. Strawberries just starting. Peonies and lilacs and wild lilies in bloom. Cow parsnips flowering here and there. As we drove south towards Sault Saint Marie, purple knapweed and St. John’s wort appeared, and parsnips came into bloom. The roadsides were full of trefoil and hawkweed. Silverweed and bladder campion identified along the shore of Lake Superior.

2003: Baby robin in the back yard today.

2007: Oakleaf hydrangea petals have lost most of their white. Astilbe and great blue hosta flowers all gone. Monarda late full. Our golden trumpet creeper has three flowers. First yellow summer squash picked in the garden. Cabbages starting to head up. New rhubarb is growing back around the old, wilted spring stalks. First beefly seen. Ephemeral ramp blossoms have turned to seed. This evening, walking Bella, I noticed dozens of black walnuts, full size, on the ground under one of Rachel’s trees on Limestone Street; they had come down in this afternoon’s storms. Tree frog heard at about 9:30 tonight.

July 11th
The 192nd Day of the Year

Midsummer pause
between the birdsong of spring and early summer
and the insect chorus of middle and late summer:
I feel nostalgia for the rising tide.
I wait in this quiet space
as the great pull of the sun reaches its limit,
balances on the edge of this week of the year,
then breaks apart, folds
into the darkening foliage
and the strata of May and June.
I look for relief in old details,
list the history of events around me,
coming to terms with loss in its teaching:
The cycles are bound together,
closed and tight;
whatever is taken comes back again;
nothing ever leaves the circle or is left behind.

Sunrise/set: 6:16/9:05 Day's Length: 14 hours 49 minutes
Average High/Low: 85/64 Average Temperature: 75
Record High: 102 - 1936 Record Low: 45 - 1898

Weather
Chances for rain: 40 percent today, but the sun appears nine days in a decade on this date. Highs in the 90s occur 25 percent of the time; 80s come six days in ten, and the chances for a milder afternoon in the 70s remain at 15 percent. Tonight is the third night in a row during which chances for a low in the 50s are only between five and ten percent.

Natural Calendar
An hour before sunrise, the Pleiades and Taurus lead Orion out of the east. In the north, the Big Dipper lies against the horizon. Due south, the gangly formation of Sculptor lies between Fornax and Piscis Austrinus. In the west, summer’s Cygnus and Aquila dip towards the tree line.

Daybook
1981: First rose of Sharon blooms.

1982: First rose of Sharon blooms. Jog to Ellis Pond: Chicory, white sweet clover, milkweed, sow thistle, fleabane, Queen Anne’s lace, black mustard, moth mullein, elderberry bindweed, bull thistle, Virginia roses, arrowhead, white campion, catnip, horse nettle, white vervain, teasel, yellow wild indigo, flower of an hour.

1983: First late-summer cricket seen in the yard.

1987: First sweet corn sold at farmer's market, seller said a little had been ready a week ago. He'd planted in the middle of April.

1989: Hail and over three inches of rain today.

1990: White sweet clover has completely replaced the yellow sweet clover. Sow thistles are tall and blooming, horseweed shooting up, first wild lettuce open.

1992: First balloon flower opens in the south garden. First phlox buds. Leaf drop of apple trees and lower canopy begins here and there.

1995: Morning birdsong has been reduced to doves and cardinals.

1997: Dark green-leafed hosta has first violet blooms. Robins loud all day. At dusk, a mother robin flew with her baby to the top of the pussy willow. Then she flew back and forth from the south garden with morsels for him.

1998: Cardinal at 5:30 this morning. Crows at 6:00.

2000: The first showy coneflower opened all the way today, and many others are unraveling slowly. Eleven red day lilies planted, most in the new east day-lily patch, some in the south garden to add June and July color. Spiderwort cut back. The afternoon was filled with grackle chatter in the back locust trees. A dead young grackle found in the yard, probably a victim of Louis, the cat. In the cool afternoon, yesterday’s Japanese beetles were out of sight, and the cicadas were silent.

2003: The woods of South Glen is muddy and bedraggled after almost two weeks and six inches of rain. Only a few flowers seen in my short walk under the canopy: avens, lopseed, enchanter’s nightshade, an oxeye. As I came back to the truck, the sky cleared, and the sun was shining through the trees, changing my mood and the mood of the landscape around me. Then, I heard a hoarse two-syllable birdcall in the osage ahead; I was able to get close enough to identify my first Eastern towhee. At home, I sat on the bench by the pond and rested, surrounded by bamboo and loosestrife, coneflowers, monarda, Japanese iris, lizard’s tail, spiderwort. I felt safe and complete.

2004: To Wisconsin: The landscape is deep green with corn west through Illinois. Some redwing blackbirds were still guarding their territories on fences along the road. As we drove north from Bloomington, the corn and soybeans became shorter; in Wisconsin, parsnips were still golden, the clearest marker of returning to June. In the preserve above Maggie’s house, coneflowers were in full bloom, and the very first Indian plantain and rudbeckia speciosa were starting to open. Monarda was in early bloom (late bloom here). Day lily and mid-season hosta time was well underway. Wheat outside of Madison was dark brown, uncut. Black raspberries were ripe along the paths.

2006: The first cardinal sang at 4:21 a.m. (EST), and others followed about ten minutes later, then continued strong for an hour or so. No robin song recognized.

2007: Euonymus berries are maybe a millimeter or two, the same size as the honeysuckle berries on the shrub over the front trellis. Lilies at full bloom, red Orientals the most recent in the northeast garden. Two red admiral butterflies and one tiger swallowtail seen in just a few minutes.

***
The old pond
A frog jumps in
Plop!

Basho

At the mid-July lacuna between the birdsong of early and middle summer and the insect chorus of late summer, I wait in this quiet space as the angle of the sun passes balances on the edge of this week of the year, then turns away into the darkening foliage and the crumbling strata of May and June. I feel I am waiting for some message, some wisdom the season might give me.
The heat keeps building through these intense days, and then sudden, dark storms come in from over my locust trees, the rain beating into the west porch, filling the flats of sprouts I have neglected to plant.
Last night I heard a strange sound behind the house, like half a katydid sound or the sound of a rasping cricket. At first I couldn’t make sense of it. The middle of July was too early for either katydid or cricket. Jeanie asked, “Do you suppose it’s a tree frog?”
I remembered the sound then, had listened to it when I worked nights at the nursing home. But the tree frogs had never sung right here before, had always lived closer to the edge of town; maybe they had moved into the neighborhood woods now, encouraged by the wet, warming earth.
I stood listening in the dark, thinking about something I had read about frogs and meditation, something about frogs that were presumed to be enlightened because they sat all day in a meditative posture, or frogs making fun of those who sat like frogs forever and ever trying to be as wise as frogs, trying to be Perfected Ones.
Zen master Aitken-Roshi, commenting on Basho’s frog haiku, notes that the “‘Plop!’ presented the act of the frog by its sound,” that the poet “became one-with the sound of ‘Plop!’ And forgot himself!”
Lazy monk that I am, I stayed only a few minutes listening for a sound that would make me forget myself and offer me the sudden splash of satori. July seemed more than long enough for that. After all, I thought, tree frogs don't jump into ponds. Other teachers would appear – insects, flowers, birds, whatever – and it was time for bed.

July 12th
The 193rd Day of the Year

If I pay attention in July,
I can see that I am nothing
but a damselfly.
When I watch you in July,
I can see that you are nothing
more or less than I.

Sunrise/set: 6:16/9:04 Day's Length: 14 hours 48 minutes
Average High/Low: 85/64 Average Temperature: 75
Record High: 103 - 1936 Record Low: 49 - 1898

Weather
Skies are totally overcast 30 percent of the time, and rain can be expected five years in ten. The temperature distribution is usually identical to that of the 11th: mostly 80s and 90s with a slight chance for 70s. Lows in the 50s, however, come twice as often as on the 11th, but that still only means that ten to 15 percent of the nights are so cool.

Natural Calendar
Leafturn is beginning now in the undergrowth. Depending on the year, buckeyes can be badly rusted, and leafminers can be turning the locust leaves brown. Along the roadsides, hemlock, parsnips, and many dock plants are withered and brittle. June's clovers and grasses are past their prime.

Daybook
1983: First rose of Sharon blooms. First field corn tassels. Jeff’s early sweet corn almost ready to eat.

1988: First red Virginia creeper seen. A few buckeye leaves rusted. Sitting in the yard, I saw a maple or elm leaf flutter to the ground every few minutes. At the swamp, Joe Pye weed is heading. River very low, carp wallowing in the shallows. One huge creature seen, about five feet long, like a white shadow in the water. Was it a trick of the sunlight or one of Vern Hogans' legendary Little Miami muskies? Walking at night, I found a huge cecropia moth with a six-inch wing span killed on Limestone street.

1989: First hosta blooms in the yard. No cicadas yet. Tall cactus in full bloom in the greenhouse. A few last black raspberries.

1990: To Wisconsin: The habitat is stable (like that of Yellow Springs) until about 30 miles south of Rockford, Illinois, then it becomes earlier, richer. June's yellow sweet clover, already to seed in Yellow Springs, is still bright there. Golden parsnips are still in full bloom, and the hills are a softer green, the color of the first week of early summer, not the color of southern middle summer that I left. A promise of autumn despite the other regressions in time: the first goldenrod is open just south of the Wisconsin border.

1995: Black walnuts, maybe three-fourths full size, found on the sidewalk in front of Nate's house.

1996: First cicadas heard today.

1997: No cicadas yet. Pond finished today, waterfall set up. The water striders and diving beetles survived the rainwater being drained out. Sitting in the yard and listening to the waterfall, I noticed the primroses were completely done for the year. Mallow still full bloom, but the leaves of one of the plants yellowing. Although showy coneflowers are flowering around town, ours are still just budding. The first phlox are budding along the north garden, but the plants have been so weakened by disease, they may not make it through the summer. Powdery mildew has killed the south garden’s phlox already. Picked a nice bowl of raspberries this morning, but there won’t be many more.

2000: Cardinal song at 4:32 a.m. (EST), sky a little overcast. A few more calls, then the morning becomes silent, the chorus having faded away over the past weeks.

2003: Still no cicadas. Most of the cornfields still not tasseling. We visited a day lily farm today, learned how to propagate them, and cross-breed them. All the lilies were in full bloom there and at another lily outlet; and at home, most of the day lilies continue to come in, some for the first time.

2007: Another red admiral and tiger swallowtail seen today. Seems like more red admirals than in previous years.
***
In natural history, every event is a sign, and every sign is what it signifies. Every observation is the telling of a precise time of the earth’s turn.

Bradford Townsend

July 13th
The 194th Day of the Year

Inebriate of Air -- am I
And Debauchee of Dew
Reeling -- through endless summer days
From inns of Molten Blue.

Emily Dickinson

Sunrise/set: 6:17/9:04 Day's Length: 14 hours 47 minutes
Average High/Low: 85/64 Average Temperature: 75
Record High:105 - 1936 Record Low: 49 - 1940

Weather
Even though the average temperature distribution for this date is close to that of the previous two days (25 percent chance for 90s, 55 percent for 80s, 15 percent for 70s), highs never made it out of the 60s back in 1990, a rare occurrence in an Ohio July (odds are about 100 to one against it). The 13th is one of the rainiest days of July - sharing that position with July 1st and 2nd - and carrying a 55 percent chance for a thunderstorm. Overcast conditions are also relatively common on this date, recorded a little more than one day out of every three.

Natural Calendar
The peak period of heat stress now begins for summer crops, and high temperatures turn some pasture grasses dormant. Although this is typically the driest time of July, sometimes rains can cause soybean root rot and leaf yellowing. San Jose scale and flathead borers are active on flowering fruit trees. In the woodlot, walnut caterpillars assault walnut trees.

Daybook
1982: Wild black raspberries cut back in the yard. Field corn is in full bloom.

1984: Rose of Sharon bloomed today.

1986: Cicadas a little stronger today.

1988: Velvetleaf bloomed in the garden.

1989: First cicadas heard in the distance. Question mark butterfly in the garden.

1992: First yellow coneflower unravels in the south garden. Field corn is still not tasseling.

1993: Yucca completely gone, some of its green seedpods fully formed. Purple coneflowers are in full bloom now in the east garden.

1996: Showy coneflowers open in the south garden. Pink phlox there bloom overnight.

2001: South Glen with Mike: Honewort to seed. Sweet Cicely seeds have turned black. Some buckeye leaves rusting. Clustered snakeroot lanky with age, pollen gone.

2003: Cardinals strong at 6:00 this morning. Young blackbird fluttered away from me at the woodpile this evening.

2005: At the park across from the Catholic church, black walnuts are about full size, and a few yellow walnut leaves surround the tree trunk. On the east fence, the first golden trumpet vine flowers open. The mature orange trumpets have been blooming quite a while throughout the village. No robin chorus in the morning, but the thinning cardinal songs keep the summer rhythm near 4:30 a.m. (EST).

2006: One cardinal at 4:12 (EST) this morning, then silence until after 4:30. No robin song heard. Young cedar waxwing chased by Louie the cat yesterday afternoon.

2007: Robins and cardinals strong before dawn this morning. At the bird feeder, a pair of nuthatches fed constantly as we ate lunch. They seemed to be taking the seeds back to their young. Tiger swallowtails seen every day now. Hummingbird moths are common.

July 14th
The 195th Day of the Year

Summer's robe grows
Dusky, and like an oft-dyed garment shows.

John Donne

Sunrise/set: 6:18/9:03 Day's Length: 14 hours 45 minutes
Average High/Low: 85/64 Average Temperature: 75
Record High: 106 - 1936 Record Low: 48 - 1894

Weather
Highs rise into 90s on 45 percent of the afternoons, are in the 80s on 40 percent, in the 70s the remaining 15 percent. Totally overcast conditions dominate today’s weather just one day in four. Rain comes one day in three, with hail a slight (one to two percent) possibility. Morning lows in the chilly 50s occur ten to fifteen percent of the years.

Natural Calendar
Farmers and gardeners now count the days: 60 to 90 frost-free mornings remain in the season, and about three months of growing weather are left for cabbages, kale, collards, beets, turnips, and carrots. Summer apples are coming in. Blueberries are ripening.
In both Yellow Springs and most of the nation, molting ends for Canadian geese; they will soon be testing their new feathers, flying back and forth between ponds and lakes.
In the West, kestrels, gray owls, osprey, and bald eagles are leaving their nests, and the number of insects and small rodents reaches its annual peak, providing food for the new fledglings. Mating season is almost over for the last of the spring and summer mammal breeders, the ermines and weasels, bobcats and bears,

Daybook
1980: Rose of Sharon bloomed today.

1982: Touch-me-nots bloomed today.

1983: Covered bridge: Leafturn beginning on the redbuds, Virginia creepers, box elders, and buckeyes. Japanese honeysuckle and multiflora roses are yellowing. Most parsnips are brown. Wood mint identified for the first time, and wild bergamot, both well past their prime. Most honewort gone to seed under the canopy, undergrowth colored in patches by dead grasses and withered garlic mustard.

1984: To Cleveland: first teasel seen in bloom.

1985: First cicadas start to sing in the evenings.

1987: South Glen: White snakeroot budding. First dusky blue tall bell flower and first bright ironweed, first yellow wingstem, first oxeye bloom. First small milkweed pods. Boneset budding now in the garden. At home tonight, a loud “late cricket,” first of the season in the yard.

1988: Celandine has died back in the drought. Apple and peach leaves are falling, more cottonwood and poplars turning, a whole line of them along the road into Xenia. Sycamore bark is shedding on schedule, marking the center of middle summer. Blackbirds still chatter in the back trees, mulberries holding. May apples completely withered. Boneset and burdock budding. Catmint and yellow moth mullein still full bloom. At the swamp, a pair of girl's white, silk bikini underpants hanging defiantly from a box elder limb.

1989: South Glen: Sycamore bark falling, white snakeroot budding, tall bell flower in early bloom, first ironweed flowers, first oxeye, first wingstem. Doe and fawn together, doe barks warning, and they bound away. Dock seeds dry and wet. First small milkweed pods seen. Fringed loosestrife full. Jacoby West: Yarrow fading, daisy fleabane still full, bouncing bets tall and lush, elderberries are all green now. Some pokeweed flowers have turned to small green berries. Hummingbird moth sighted. Blueweed at the top of its spike, perfect monarda everywhere here. Gray-headed coneflower just opening, first burdock budding, bottle grass at perfection for chewing, late cinquefoil here and there, red honeysuckle berries, avens three fourths of them to seed heads, butterfly weed full, Deptford pink still blooming, tattered great mullein too. Blackberries are pale red, moving toward August.

1996: Dark-leafed coral bells with the white flowers are still strong. Blue-flowered campanula opened suddenly a couple of days ago in the east garden. Wrens active, probably feeding their young. Robins still eating berries in the mulberry tree. Cats catching shrews at night, bringing them home to the back porch.

1999: Bottlebush buckeye in late bloom at the Cincinnati zoo (the plant is also blooming across from the Laundromat in town).

2001: First monarch butterfly in the garden this morning, lighting on a red zinnia. The question mark and red admiral butterflies of late June, however, have disappeared. Young katydid, maybe half size, found while trimming the front forsythia bushes.

2003: Acorns on the red oaks near the grade school are the size of small marbles, all enclosed in their sheathes. Black walnuts are close to full size.

2004: A few yellow leaves lie about the yard this morning. In the north gardens, the lilies have begun their decline. They reach their peak about the 10th or 11th of July, and then their season suddenly starts to wane. Joe Pye weed has pink flower heads now, the color intensifying throughout the past week. In the east garden, the campanula have almost completed their cycle. In the pond, the lizard’s tails are all seeds now. No bird chorus at 5:30 this morning. Cardinals started at 5:45; they were joined by the song sparrow and robin chatter by 6:00, doves a little later.

2005: Inventory: Full bloom in the garden of Shasta daisy, catmint, Russian sage, hollyhocks, midseason purple asters, monarda, rose of Sharon, midseason and bicolor hosta, Queen Anne’s lace, daisy fleabane, mallow, pale green hosta, thyme, coreopsis, gooseneck, Heliopsis. Pickerel weed blooms in the pond. Twenty-six varieties of day lilies counted, three of oriental/Asiatic including one yellow trumpet lily and an orange Turk’s cap. Oak leaf hydrangea flowers have turned from white to green. Astilbe and big blue hosta are done blooming for the year. First cherry tomatoes and first zucchini squash picked in the garden. Still no cicadas heard.

2006: Some cicadas in the afternoon as I worked outside. Around the yard, the rubeckias planted from seed are maybe a fourth blooming. All the lilies are in full flower, all the Shasta daisies and the hollyhocks. The mallow, the gooseneck and the monarda continue strong in the south and north gardens.

July 15th
The 196th Day of the Year

There is no plateau on which Nature rests at midsummer, but she instantly commences the descent to winter.

Henry David Thoreau

Sunrise/set: 6:18/9:03 Day's Length: 14 hours 45 minutes
Average High/Low: 85/64 Average Temperature: 75
Record High: 106 - 1936 Record Low: 48 - 1894

Weather
Highs above 100 occur ten to 15 percent of the time today and tomorrow, the only two days of the Yellow Springs year on which temperatures rise so high so often. Nineties occur 20 percent of the years in my record, 80s forty to 45 percent, 70s twenty-five percent of the time. Skies are overcast only one year in five, and a thunderstorm develops just one in four. In spite of the increased possibilities for 100s today, early morning temperatures fall into the mild 50s twenty percent of the time, a relatively high percentage for the second and third weeks of July.

The Week Ahead
Temperatures are in the 80s and 90s most of the time this week, and highs above 100 are more likely to occur on July 15th and 16th than any other days of the Midwestern year (a 15 percent chance for such heat). Nighttime lows typically remain in the 60s, but chilly 50s occur an average of ten to 15 percent of the time. Rain is a bit more likely this week than it was last week as chances for showers rise over the next seven days from between 20 and 30 percent to between 35 and 40 percent.

Natural Calendar
The reddening of blackberries, the darkening of elderberries, the first katydid voices, the slow rise of cricket song, the quieting of the early morning birds, and the first restless flights of geese are clear signs of late middle summer. Thistledown unravels more dramatically. Seed pods form on trumpet creepers. Catalpa beans are fat and long. There is a scent of August in the morning air, the smell of spent flowers and leaves.

Daybook
1982: Cascades Habitat: Wood mint, tall bellflower (one in bloom), enchanter's nightshade, wood nettle, hobblebush, leafcup, lopseed blooming. Trillium with large green clusters of seeds.

1984: First cicada today.

1985: In the Vale: First white snakeroot blooms. Some white vervain past its prime, moving toward late summer. First thin-leafed cone flower. A few hickory nuts have fallen here. Boneset is budding. Blackberries full size but green, a few Virginia roses left. Tall bellflowers found, have been open for about a week. At Grinnell Swamp, the touch-me-nots are in early bloom. Last of the bedstraw is flowering, enchanter's nightshade almost gone. Avens holding.

1987: First katydid heard near 11:30 p.m. Blue jays not as active now, their activity declining for a week or so. Ohio peaches coming in to the markets, Ohio melons too. White and black hairy one-inch caterpillar seen in the garden.

1988: Clearweed sprouting along the river on schedule, in spite of the drought. One tall bellflower open. Thin-leafed coneflower budding. Pods on the redbud trees still soft and green. Most day lilies now gone from the roadsides, part of the end of middle summer. Upstream, the largest school of carp I've ever seen, the young maybe six to eight inches, hundreds of them just below the surface of the water. The larger fish, two to ten pounders lying close to shore, slowly feeding in the fallen logs along the lush lizard's tail. One giant fish could have been fifteen pounds.

1989: First rose of Sharon opened today.

1990: First woolly bear caterpillar seen today.

1993: Red admiral butterfly lights on Jean's shirt this noon, first butterfly seen in the yard for more than a week. Motherwort still full bloom at the pussy willow garden, lemon verbena coming in beside it. Cardinal song diminishing daily. Field corn finally tasseling towards Fairborn.

1995: Lupine pods breaking, spreading their seeds.

1998: Stag beetle rides home from the movie on John’s shirt.

2001: The first white phlox opens in the south garden. Flowers of lamb’s quarters completely gone by the pond. The red monarda still full bloom in the southeast garden. Midseason hostas continue at their peak. Day lilies, with the violet mallow and a few Asiatic and Oriental lilies, dominate the north garden.

2002: Back from the drive across Canada. Doves, crows, blue jays, blackbirds, robins, and doves were all loud at 6:15 this morning. Corn is starting to tassel in a few fields around Yellow Springs – late from the heavy May and early June rains, and then delayed by the drought that followed. In the south garden: phlox has budded, the first flower unraveling. Shasta daisies and purple coneflowers full bloom. Mallow and red monarda late full. Spiderwort blooms down to maybe half of what they were in mid June. In the pond, lizard’s tail has gone to seed; purple loosestrife is lush, water willow almost gone. In the north garden, ironweed is seven feet tall and budded. Heliopsis, gooseneck, butterfly bush, yellow Oriental lilies, yellow trumpet lilies, catmint, Russian sage, Queen Anne’s lace, rose of Sharon, and garden mint are all at full bloom. Only a few cicadas are calling.

2004: Powdery mildew spreading now to the monarda, has already destroyed several patches of phlox. Blackberries are ripening at South Glen.

2005: To South Glen with Mike: The river is low after a month with little precipitation. The paths are full of cobwebs, the undergrowth lush and damp. Tall bellflowers are the only bright markers under the canopy. Wood nettle, late avens, leafcup, milkweed, teasel all in bloom. Damsel flies common, and one pair of red milkweed beetles mating, but no other milkweed beetles found. One wood thrush heard, the only bird call on an hour walk. Sycamore bark on the path and lying on top of the wood nettle. One hickory nut seen on the path. No mosquitoes. No cicadas yet.

2006: No robinsong heard at 4:45 a.m. (EST), some cardinals singing. Giant green June beetle seen in the garden today trying to climb the basil sprouts. On the porch, a thin, green katydid-like insect in a pot of caladiums. In the garden, caterpillars have eaten half the tomato leaves and have started in on the fruit!

2007: Tiger swallowtail and spicebush swallowtails in the garden today. Finches, sparrows, nuthatches, cardinals, titmice at the feeders. The north garden continues lush with lilies, coneflowers, spiderwort, violet monarda, Queen Anne’s lace, hosta, mallow and Heliopsis. Tiny hover bees come to the porch bouquets. Joe Pye weed started to open yesterday. The small koi have survived two weeks now. One field thistle open along High Street.