June 1st
The 152nd Day of the Year

I will measure one by one
through this sweetest afternoon
strawberries, mulberries,
goslings and dragon flies,
crickets and fireflies
under the waxing moon,
sundrops, angelica, yucca stalks,
meadow rue, thistles and lilies,
lychnis, astilbe,
telling the time in June.

Hepatica Sun

Sunrise/set: 6:09/8:57 Day's Length: 14 hours 48 minutes
Average High/Low: 78/57 Average Temperature: 67
Record High: 97 - 1895 Record Low: 42 - 1972

Weather
Today brings a ten percent chance for highs in the 90s, fifty percent for 80s, thirty percent for 70s, ten percent for 60s. A thunderstorm comes 40 percent of the time, and the sun shines eight years in a decade. A very slight chance (one to three percent) of frost remains until the 14th of June.

The Weather of the Week Ahead
The first week of June brings a sudden end to the likelihood of highs in the 50s and 60s. Chances for that kind of cold were around 30 percent last week; this week chances for 60s fall to only 15 percent, and 50s are rare.
Temperatures for the days of this week rise into the 70s on 35 percent of the afternoons, into the 80s on 40 percent, and into the 90s on ten percent. After June 6th, the likelihood of highs reaching into the 90s jumps to 20 percent, and reaches 35 percent by the middle of the month. About 15 percent of the nights bring temperatures in the 30s or 40s.
Rainfall is usually lighter this week than last, and the sun shines more. Still, showers fall about 40 percent of the time each day, except for the 4th, which has just a 30 percent chance, and the 6th, one of the driest days of June, which has just a 15 percent chance for precipitation.

Natural Calendar
Rose chafers and two-spotted spider mites appear on rose bushes. Quail whistle, pair bonding for mating later in the month. Goslings are more than half grown. Most eastern tent caterpillars have left the nest by today. Mulberry season begins for both the red and white varieties, and it typically lasts until the end of early summer, June 25th. June and December have the least variation in length of day: June's variation is 13 minutes, December's 14 minutes.

Daybook
1982: The middle of strawberry season in the yard.

1984: Chicory still not blooming.

1986: Strawberries peaking in the garden. At Jacoby Swamp, 8:00 a.m., geese with goslings maybe a third grown, a flock of finches, biting flies, box turtle on the path, crickets strong. Huge prairie false indigo, baptisia leucantha, late bloom in the high prairie up from the road (seen late May at South Glen in 1993). Cobwebs across the path. Fire pinks still in bloom. Gold collared black flies mating, swarming. Wild roses and corn salad still in full bloom, heavily fragrant. First dragonfly. Several baby toads noticed. Violet swamp iris late full bloom. First large-petaled wild rose seen. Geese fly over the house at 8:40 p.m.

1987: No chiggers yet. Small toads seen at the lake shore, probably just out.

1988: The pieces of summer fitting together like a puzzle solving itself: goslings growing up along Yellow Springs Creek, box turtles out laying eggs, cobwebs closing the paths. First sundrops blooming, sweet rockets most all to seed, last remnants of May. Catalpas in early bloom, many still budding. Yucca flower stalks two feet high, like huge, thick asparagus. Tall meadow rue budding at South Glen, one covered with golden aphids. Multiflora roses all open. Spring field crickets prominent at night. Cardinals have been feeding their babies for about a week now.

1989: First day lilies seen today

1990: Nodding thistle opening.

1991: Intense heat continues, accelerating early summer. John Poortinga brought a bowl of red mulberries to Jean, then two ripe cherries. Ranunculus and pyrethrums gone at the south wall. Dock, tree of heaven and astilbe full bloom, pokeweed heading and nearly open, primrose full, mallow budding, zinnias budding, two four o'clocks have trumpet buds. More tiger lilies are budding, lychnis blooming big and full. Vegetable garden totally out of hand, broccoli bolting, peas filling up, lettuce and radishes gone to seed. First raspberry reddening along the garden wall. Yucca open in town. At the bridge, blue cohosh has its first blue berry, and bottle grass has emerged.

1993: Locusts in front of Wesley Hall dropping green florescence.

1994: First firefly seen tonight, despite the dry, cool May.

1997: First pink peony opened in the rain. Mock orange full, flags nearing full. Locusts and osage still pretty bare. Many honeysuckle flowers falling. This may be the latest the canopy has closed since 1978.

1998: Jacoby, north to High Prairie: Hobblebush centers are budding. Wingstem, leafcup, touch-me-nots are up to my waist. Honewort, clustered snakeroot dominate the undergrowth. Gold-collared black flies are out, and buckeyes, skippers, damsel flies, small tan moths, spitbugs, many ichneumans – one red with black wings. Springs and brooks as full as I’ve ever seen them. Tulip tree petals gold and peach color, like seashells in the swamp water below the brooks. Maple seeds along the path, fallen in tandem. One-inch May apple fruit, shining under its foliage. Blue jays and crows screech. Very last rockets and multiflora roses. Bright red wild strawberries. Purple waterleaf long gone, white still in flower. Thousands of blackberries fully fruited inside of High Prairie. Last ragwort petals along the river. Wild cherry fruit well set. Cattails almost up to last year’s brown remnants, some with pollen. Dredlocks of purple vetch at Middle Prairie, veins of golden moneywort in the mowed paths. First white yarrow. Old white violets still common. Wild garlic flowers, striped like spring beauties. Blue-eyed grass, fire pink. Some teasel headed along the highway.

At home, the pyrethrums are gone. First water willow blooms in the pond. First great mullein flower opens. Fireflies in the yard after dark.

2000: I accidentally stepped on a camel cricket in the kitchen at 12:30 this morning; I saw another in the greenhouse at 6:00 a.m. My notes from May 31st last year record the first camel at 4:30 a.m. To northern Ohio: peonies full bloom there, sweet rockets, and columbine.

2001: Wood thrush call identified. First stella d’oro day lily fully open. First pink achillea opens in the south garden.

2002: First violet scabiosa seen open. Peak now of daisies, late sweet rockets, spiderwort, poppies, sweet Williams, Japanese honeysuckles, and privets. Peonies, rhododendrons, mock orange, and locusts all ended together at the end of May.

2003: At the Santee-Cooper reservoir in South Carolina, wheat is dark brown, and corn is almost ready to tassel.

2007: No cedar waxwings seen yesterday or today in the white mulberry tree.

Now come the rosy June, and blue-eyed Hours,
With song of birds, and stir of leaves and wings….

Webbe

June 2nd
The 153rd Day of the Year

When June is here – what art have we to sing
The whiteness of the lilies midst the green
On noon-tranced lawns? Or flash of roses seen
Like redbirds’ wings? Or earliest ripening
Prince-Harvest apples, where the cloyed bees cling
Round winey juices oozing down between
The peckings of the robin, while we lean
In under-grasses, lost in marveling?

James Whitcomb Riley

Sunrise/set: 6:08/8:58 Day's Length: 14 hours 50 minutes
Average High/Low: 78/57 Average Temperature: 68
Record High: 98 - 1895 Record Low: 41 - 1910

Weather
Most June 2nds are pleasant and warm with highs in the 70s or 80s (35 percent chance for each), with the remaining 30 percent evenly divided between 90s and 60s. Completely cloudy conditions occur four days out of ten. Rain falls 55 percent of the time on this date, but this is the last day until June 20th that chances of precipitation are so high.

Natural Calendar
The flowers of early June: poison hemlock, common cinquefoil, sulfur cinquefoil, red, yellow and white clovers, angelica, ragwort, black raspberries, meadow goat's beard, sweet rocket, fire pink, wild geranium, henbit, columbine, white campion, common fleabane, golden alexander, tall buttercups, corn salad, cow parsnip, field parsnip, black medic, Miami mist, smooth-leafed dock, spiderwort, Solomon's plume, clustered snakeroot, daisies, maple waterleaf, and late sedum.

Daybook
1981: First strawberries for breakfast.

1982: First peonies decaying.

1983: Yarrow budding in far South Glen, sweet Cicely, garlic mustard, winter cress, spring cress declining, sweet rocket strong, a few wild geraniums left, touch-me-nots and nettles three feet tall, angelica six feet and blooming, tall meadow rue four feet, poison hemlock still not open, parsnips beginning, wild petunia foliage becoming prominent, about a foot high. First baby blackbird in the yard.

1984: First young blackbird in the yard today. Catalpas budding, Siberian iris bloom, first yellow sweet clover, buckeyes with smooth fruits.

1986: First Canadian thistle and blueweed found along the railroad tracks. End of the peonies today

1989: First strawberries for breakfast.

1992: All iris, small and large, in late bloom. Mock orange holding, second tier of daisies opening, red pyrethrum older but still beautiful, rockets going to seed, some ranunculus gone, bright orange geum holding. Peak of strawberries. Multiflora roses seen from the road.

1993: All locust flower clusters are brown now. Sycamore leaves seem full size. Wild cherry gone on Dayton Street, most iris done. Long fence rows of white blackberry flowers along Grinnell. Feverfew open along High Street.

1994: First Asiatic lily opened along the north border today, flowering pale orange from a newer, shorter stalk. Sweet Williams are at their height now, only four or five iris left, peonies full bloom. In the south garden, the sweet rockets are almost finished. This week, the flicker in the back woods has been singing all day, loud, steady, raucous calls.

1996: Privets budding. Late peonies, late iris, late blue flags, late honeysuckle, full mock orange. Late full daisies. Poppies gone. Pyrethrums waning, sweet rockets waning. Snow-on-the-mountain full along Dayton Street. Locust flowers falling to the sidewalk, their rich season finally disintegrating. I saw yellow sweet clover for the first time two days ago. Black medic full bloom, red and white clover too.

2000: On Kelly’s Island in Lake Erie, red sunrise exactly at 6:00, eight to ten minutes ahead of Yellow Springs. The fish bit in the barometric trough before the storm, then disappeared as the high pressure moved through. The wind blew chilly and hard all night, lifting the boat off the sand beach and tumbling it south along the shore.

2001: Walk through the Glen in the rain: petals of the yellow poplar common on the path, the woods deep green for summer.

2002: Yellow swallowtail sighted today. White moths at the front porch light.

2003: Returning from Santee-Cooper in South Carolina, I came across a swarm of red periodic cicadas at the first rest stop across the Virginia – North Carolina line. Through the mountains, locusts, wild cherry, and blackberries were in bloom, weeks behind Yellow Springs. When I arrived home, the first yellow sundrop was coming out, the last blue flag shriveling.

2004: To South Carolina: Full summer in southwestern Ohio, canopy complete. Banks of yellow stella d’oro lilies in Cincinnati. Staghorns reddening. Sweet clover and crown vetch throughout. Poison hemlock in bloom, and golden staghorns, daisies. Catalpas still flowering in Kentucky. Seeding time for locusts and ashes. Elderberries in flower. South of Cincinnati, hemlocks were seeding and Japanese honeysuckles were in full bloom Parsnips tall and gold. Teasel and milkweed two to three feet. Full Canadian thistles. A few miles north of Lexington, white sweet clover comes in. Cattails thin, emerging, full of pollen. Chicory opening by 8:15 EDT. Trumpet creeper in Lexington. Nodding thistles full throughout. New tawny hay bales rolled in the fileld. Queen Anne’s lace three hours south of Yellow Springs at Berea.
Roadside tiger day lilies at Knoxville, some nodding thistles holding there, many going to seed. Mimosa trees and milkweed blooming. Teasel headed. Kousa dogwood in the mountains of North Carolina. Fields of purple and orange poppies high in the mountains. Below Spartanburg, wild lettuce, horseweed. Near Columbia, myrtles.
At Santee Cooper, water willow in bloom – at the same time as in Yellow Springs. Corn tasseling here, some ears formed. Some wheat dark, most fields cut. Water lilies open – American lotus early bloom. Catalpa beans nine-inches long.

2007: Primrose sundrops completely full and bright. Transplanted stella d’oros have first blossoms. Pale violet pond iris have ended, Japanese pond iris in early full bloom. Rockets closing very quickly, mostly gone. Day lilies and Asiatics budding throughout. Two purple coneflowers have unraveled; the Heliopsis is starting to unravel. In the water garden, the first water willow bloomed today. Lizard’s “tails” have developed over the past three or four days.

The state of the crop in the surrounding farms alters the expression of the earth from week to week. The succession of native plants in the pastures and roadsides, which makes the silent clock by which time tells the summer hours, will make even the divisions of the day sensible to a keen observer. The tribes of birds and insects, like the plants punctual to their time, follow each other, and the year has room for all.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

June 3rd
The 154th Day of the Year

O for boyhood's time of June
Crowding years in one brief moon,
When all things I heard or saw,
Me, their master, waited for.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Sunrise/set: 6:08/8:59 Day's Length: 14 hours 51 minutes
Average High/Low: 78/57 Average Temperature: 68
Record High: 99 - 1895 Record Low: 40 - 1929

Weather
Today’s high temperature distribution: 80s occur on 45 percent of all the days, 70s on 35 percent, 60s on 20 percent, 90s almost never. Thunderstorms develop 45 percent of the years, but the sun returns 90 percent of the time.

Natural Calendar
The tea roses and achillea open. The first foxtail grass unravels. Asiatic lilies, poison ivy, meadow rue, lanky Indian hemp, and the catalpa trees are budding. July’s wild petunia foliage is a foot tall. August's boneset has grown knee high. May apples have fruit the size of a cherry. Buckeyes have half-inch burrs. Honeysuckle flowers are falling, bridal wreath and snowball viburnum rusting. Timothy is ripe for chewing.

Daybook
1983: Snowball viburnum almost gone, rockets still hold, and water cress. Lily-of-the-valley gone, milkweed three feet tall, two young blackbirds, just out of the nest, sitting on the lawn.

1984: Honeysuckles and bridal wreath spirea mostly completed in the yard, snowballs fading.

1985: Privet still full bloom, pink spirea has been open a few days. May apples fat at South Glen, honewort full, garlic mustard all bowing down, only an occasional rocket and white violet, green berries on the cohosh. Out in the field, cow parsnips full, full timothy, first tall meadow rue and dogbane flowering.

1986: Cardinals singing at 4:33 a.m. Black raspberries turning red, cherries ripening.

1987: Mulberries coming in, first ones completely ripe around the end of May. Blueweed suddenly open, first black raspberries darkening, cherries turning. Summer is advancing more quickly now with heavy rains, humidity, and temperatures in the 80s. Robin seen sitting on her eggs in the ginkgo outside my window.

1990: Osage flowers fall, catalpa buds are forming, peonies and iris still full in patches, privet time.

1991: Fishing at Caesar Creek, sun, warm, quiet: Around 10:00 a.m., three catfish in a row, a bullhead, two carp, then nothing for a while. Along the shores, carp splashing, sucking at the reeds and leaves, sometimes a low slurping, other times almost like the chucking of a squirrel. Bullfrogs croak from time to time, other frogs high chanting, steady through the morning. Webworms in the water willows, cottonwood still drifting, one question mark butterfly, a yellow swallowtail, and a small blue. Cicadas swarming in a nearby ash tree, periodic cicadas: red heads, orange legs, light orange wing ribs. Pale blue-bodied dragonflies with black wings, orange dragonflies. Brown spotted butterfly, a buckeye, sat on my right hand, unafraid and sipping salt from my skin. I wanted it to change hands. I put out my left index finger. It tasted it, climbed on. The afternoon went so quickly. By the end, a total of three cats, six carp, one bullhead, three large fish lost.

1992: Madison, Wisconsin to Gentilly in northwestern Minnesota: Locust trees in Madison: branches heavy with flowers, their rich scent on the wind. Sweet rockets full all the way north, huge sunflower foliage, full canopy on the roadside trees, milkweed two to three feet, and some with first bud clusters. Spurge was full from Illinois to central Wisconsin. Crop stages similar between Yellow Springs to Madison, but becoming behind by Eau Claire. Minnesota wheat was six inches to a foot tall (starting to turn near Yellow Springs), first corn just sprouted, sugar beets the size of radishes, blackbirds nesting from Ohio to the Canadian border. Lilacs in bloom in Gentilly, iris full bloom in Ada, cottonwood in the streets of Crookston.

1993: Poison hemlock at the height of its flower. Wild strawberries are ripe, red in the east garden and the lawn.

1996: As I went to the greenhouse at 4:45 a.m., the first cardinal sang in the yard. First three strawberries perfectly ripe in the garden. Raspberries very small and green. Last year's parsley sends up seed stalks. Young crow just out of the nest flew by me as I walked out the back door this afternoon, its parents watchful, loud for the next few hours.

1998: First heliopsis and first feverfew send out petals. First pink yarrow in the yard. Pyrethrum season is over.

1999: First orange Asiatic lily blossoms as all the blue flags end. Three peonies left, fragments of poppies, fragrant full bloom of the privet since the end of May, Catalpas full and falling. Snake skins found along the garden rocks for the past two weeks, water willow blooming beside them.

2000: Back from Lake Erie: the Japanese iris in the pond are done now for the year. Water willow opening in their place. In the south garden, the pink achillea has begun its season. On Fairfield Pike, the catalpas are full bloom still, the yucca spikes are five feet tall. Daisies lanky now, ranunculus disappearing, bright yellow sundrops all blossoming against the south wall, a patch of orange lilies along the north garden. The south side of the yard is now almost completely sealed off from the world by the foliage of the red mulberry trees.

2002: Earwigs and green damselflies in the garden. A yellow swallowtail visited the sweet rockets this afternoon. Kousa dogwood is still in full bloom in the triangle park.

2005: To the far end of Caesar Creek with John today, fishing in deep water to 100 feet. Not a bite all day. Penstemon opens in the north garden. Flags all gone.

2007: Constant grackle conversations, we assume between parents and fledglings, in the bushes and back lot all day. The chatter has been going on for days, growing in intensity. The red-bellied woodpecker has been louder and more insistent, too – after a period of relative quiet. First scorpion fly seen in the yard.

Wide are the meadows of night,
And daisies are shining there,
Tossing their lovely dews,
Lustrous and fair;
And through these sweet fields go,
Wand'rers 'mid the stars---
Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars.
'Tired in their silver, they move,
And circling, whisper and say,
Fair are the blossoming meads of delight
Through which we stray.

Walter de la Mare, Wanderers

June 4th
The 155th Day of the Year

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky….

George Herbert

Sunrise/set: 6:07/8:59 Day's Length: 14 hours 52 minutes
Average High/Low: 79/58 Average Temperature: 68
Record High: 97 - 1895 Record Low: 42 - 1945

Weather
The 4th is usually dry, with showers occurring just 25 percent of the days. Skies are clear to partly cloudy three days in four. Highs reach the 80s forty percent of the time and climb to the 70s fifty-five percent of the time. Today is the second-last June summer day when a five percent chance for a cold afternoon temperatures in the 50s can be expected (the 12th is the very last day).

Natural Calendar
Cucumber beetles reach the economic threshold on the farm and in the garden. Chinch bugs begin to hatch in the lawn. Whiteflies attack azaleas. Weevils assault the yellow poplars. Leafminers work arborvitae, birch, locusts, boxwood, elms, holly, juniper. Rose slugs attack ornamentals. Powdery mildew becomes a problem in the phlox.

Daybook
1982: Some mulberries ripe along King Street. Sweet rocket gone except for the few cutovers.

1983: More fragments of May: sweet Cicely old, foliage turning a creamy violet color, yellow flowers of the golden alexander gone to seed. Another piece of early summer: swamp valerian found on the way to Caesar Creek. Blackberries in bloom everywhere, snowball viburnum still prominent, white and red peonies and iris common throughout. Yellow sweet clover in the roadsides.

1985: Covered Bridge: Cabbage moths mating. Black damsel flies with white wing tips by the river, and pale tan moths. Mint is waist high, catchweed burs catching in my pants legs. Wingstem five and six feet tall, honewort full bloom, golden Alexander gone to seed, boneset three feet, lizard's tail with five leaves, corn salad and garlic mustard dying. At Middle Prairie maybe a dozen crickets singing.

1986: Two small groundhogs, maybe six to eight weeks old, killed on the roads this week.

1988: Iris seem to have disappeared everywhere. Japanese honeysuckle and privets bloomed overnight. All snowballs and bridal wreath are gone. Chicory seen yesterday in Fairborn. Tiger lilies are budding.

1989: Strawberries peak in the north garden, cabbage moths spiraling, mating by the stone wall, catchweed burs catching on my pants. First chicory seen along the highway today, yellow sweet clover, purple vetch, crown vetch, multiflora roses, blackberries full bloom. First Japanese honeysuckle in the yard. In the woods, sweet rockets are in late flower, as blue waterleaf and ragwort decline. Day lilies have been out a few days, swamp orchids in bloom a week or so. Gold-collared blackflies are common, daddy longlegs everywhere. Cottonwood cotton floating down onto the streets. Watercress still full. Under the canopy, wingstem, touch-me-not, white snakeroot, wood nettle are huge. Avens is knee high, honewort is blossoming, apples an inch long.

1991: Campanulas opening.
`
1993: Parsnips full bloom.

1997: Into South Glen this coolest spring of the decade: Crickets loud. First multiflora rose in bloom, last wild geranium and white violet. Sweet rockets and maple leaf waterleaf on the down side of their bloom, garlic mustard almost gone. Corn salad full and white. Burs on the catchweed. Timothy emerging from its sheathes. Ragwort to seed. Wingstem, wild lettuce, wood nettle waist high. Scorpion flies are about, and gold collard black-flies. Teasel pants-pocket high. Lots of daddy longlegs. Orchard grass easy to pull, and sweet. Black damselflies. First white yarrow seen in south Dayton. Locusts full bloom along the freeway.

1998: Thimble plant heading up at the Mill. One blonde, one white domestic rabbit hopping around in the bushes. Several parsnips have gone to seed. Fire pink seen.

1999: Feverfew buds forming. Along the tree line as I drive, tall catalpa trees are white with flowers. The air is heavy with sweet privet and Japanese honeysuckle.

2000: At breakfast, I looked up at the tall locusts in the back yard. Their leaves were finally full, the last of the canopy. Later, feverfew seen in early bloom.

2001: The south garden fills with lamb’s ear, dwarf geranium, spiderwort, late poppies, very late Japanese iris, water lilies, stella d’oro lilies, primrose, daisies, rockets, buttercups.

2002: Another yellow swallowtail. Red mulberries falling in Dayton.

2003: Peonies, poppies, iris, blue flags, mock orange are completely done blooming today. Sweet Williams, cressleaf groundsel, daisies, peach-leaved bellflowers, and spiderwort keep the garden full of color. The very first water willow bloomed in the pond – beside five red water lilies and the last dark-purple Japanese water iris. Catalpas are in full bloom throughout the area.

2005: To the old catfish hole at Caesar Creek with John. The reservoir was a little low, and we had no bites during an hour of fishing. Only one small turtle was hooked near lunchtime. One good-sized crappie struck a walleye lure as we were trolling back to the landing. In the evening, John caught a goldfish, a catfish, two suckers and a chub at Sycamore Hole. First fireflies seen tonight.

2007: Loud, intense feeding of young grackles from before dawn until full daylight, then the activity lightens a little. Two young doves found in the garden this morning. They were maybe a third of full size, flew off rather agilely. In the alley, panicled dogwood in early bloom, pokeweed budding. In the yard, early orange and yellow Asiatic lilies anchor the garden now. Ranunculus season ends in the east garden except for a handful of blossoms. First buckeye butterfly seen in the yard this morning. Young sparrow being fed by its mother in the sweet Williams. Grackles continue to feed their fledglings – the whole woodlot is filled with their cackles. Jeanie reports fire pinks in full bloom at Clifton Gorge. Driving home from Beavercreek, we saw a roadside full of orange day lilies.

June 5th
The 156th Day of the Year

I must follow up these continual lessons of the air, water, earth, I perceive I have no time to lose.

Walt Whitman

Sunrise/set: 6:07/9:00 Day's Length: 14 hours 53 minutes
Average High/Low: 79/58 Average Temperature: 68
Record High: 98 - 1925 Record Low: 41 - 1954

Weather
Today's chance for a high in the 90s is five percent, and 90s are at least that likely in Yellow Springs until September 19th. Fifty percent of the afternoons reach 80, and 30 percent are in the 70s. Chilly afternoons in the 60s come 15 percent of the time. A low in the 30s is more likely (ten percent likely) to occur this morning than on any other June morning, and it is the last time that temperatures so cold can expected until September 6th.

Natural Calendar
Late winter's Castor and Pollux set in the northwest before midnight. Arcturus and the Corona Borealis are overhead then, Hercules not far behind them to the east, followed by the Milky Way, middle summer's Vega and the Northern Cross. July’s Scorpius pursues Libra across the southern sky.

Daybook
1982: Yellow day lilies seen in town.

1984: Multiflora bush in the yard opens overnight, late locust blossoms rain down in a thunderstorm. Out to Caesar Creek: dock with small flowers, daisies, clover, blackberries, first yarrow, wild roses, Miami mist, yellow sweet clover, first blue and black damsel flies, first timothy emerging from its sheaths, swamp valerian, blue-eyed grass, cinquefoil. Carp feeding at the shore, mating, grasshoppers drumming, flies pesky, bobwhite calling. First cobweb in my face. Wild onions getting seed bulbs, poison ivy ready to bloom. Fire pink seen. Spiderwort past its prime. When I sat on a log, I was covered with wood ticks. First brown wood toad seen, maybe an inch and a half long. Thousands of black tadpoles in the pools. Juncus canadensis, carex vulpinoide, cares stipada, phragmites communis collected.

1986: Catalpa flowers blew away today in the wind. Timothy was emerging from its sheathes at Middle Prairie, tender for chewing. The first black raspberries came in, one half a pint, covering the last of the strawberries in my colander. Several young raccoons killed on the back road, six to eight weeks old.

1990: Tall meadow rue just starting to bloom at Clifton. Sundrops budding at the south wall, astilbe pink under the apple tree. Privet continues full bloom.

1991: To Jacoby from the Covered Bridge. The woods full of late
honewort, some waterleaf still holding. July wildflower stalks chest high: touch-me-nots, wood nettles, wingstem. White cabbage moths, a dozen or so, clustered on a rock along the river. Maybe looking for salt in the urine of a dog or a deer that had passed by. Then more clusters of butterflies at mud patches higher up along the path. Large numbers of damselflies and monarchs. Lizard tail seed heads out but not open. Daisy fleabane, Canadian and nodding thistles seen. Brome grasses, timothy, bottle grass peak. Men working along the new bikepath at Jacoby. I think how Thoreau mentioned the outside workers, admired them and despised them. Flock of fourteen geese. No goslings. Panicled dogwood full. All multiflora roses long gone. Tall meadow rue, six feet, late full. Some angelica still full. A lot of moneywort. Yellow, red, white sweet clover full, all parsnips full.

1992: Most peonies have not opened in Crookston, Minnesota. Yellow sweet clover in bloom from Ohio north through Minneapolis and St. Cloud.

1993: Dutch iris more than half gone, scent of asparagus fern in full bloom has filled the greenhouse for days, delphinium early now, started a couple days ago. Iris three-fourths decayed in the village. Chicago peace rose is the first to open this month, then the Queen Elizabeth, then the Blue Girl, then the old-fashioned Rugosa. First striped cucumber beetle seen attacking the mums. Cottonwood seed in the wind: flurries of down across the highway south of town. Buds on the Virginia creeper outside my window.

1994: First garden primrose today. In the south garden, sweet rocket seed heads cut back for drying, goldenrod pulled,
already five feet tall. Buds noticed on the hollyhocks, on the gay feather too. Most honeysuckle gone in the yard, mock orange three-quarters fallen. Downtown: bridal wreath has rusted, the pink spirea is open, privet is still budding.

1998: Frost in the North yesterday and today as a fierce front moves down from Canada.

2000: Early summer grows more apparent: more roses, more achillea, late catalpas, the bright primroses, the soft gray and violet lamb’s ears, the snapdragons and their pastels, the tall yellow yarrow heading up, the full blooming spiderwort beside the blue flax, motherwort blossoming, hollyhock buds heavy and leaning. In the pond, the pickerel plant opened. In Xenia, the first yucca flowers, and purple spirea in full bloom.

2001: First chicory and moth mullein seen open along the freeway in the late afternoon. More Canadian thistles. Coreopsis suddenly in full bloom along the entry to the interstate at Fairborn. Mulberries ripening.

2002: First chicory, first moth mullein, and first orange Asiatic lilies. Wild cherry bloom ends. Cottonwood full bloom, along with catalpas, privets, yellow poplars, and Japanese honeysuckle. Lizard’s tails completely formed. Osage flowers falling now.

2003: Robins and cardinals loud at 5:30 (EDT), dove joining in by 5:45. Song still loud at 6:00, quieting toward 6:30. At the pond near the shopping center, a huge flock of goslings –- maybe three dozen small birds – seen with eight adult geese.

2005: To the Ohio River with John: Catfishing at the dam east of Cincinnati, full rigs with cut bait, no strikes, only one small drum was hooked. All along the road south, catalpas were in full bloom.

2006: Kelleys Island in Lake Erie: Cottonwood cotton flying everywhere, building up on the roads and sidewalks, hanging to the spent garlic mustard in the woods. Panicled dogwoods and poison ivy budded. “Canadian soldiers” everywhere; Casey says he hears them in the morning high in the trees. Here multiflora roses and blackberries are still in bloom, a few blue-eyed grass and wild onions flowering, daisies, a pale violet beardtongue-type plant, red-violet crane’s bill. The dominant shrub, in full bloom throughout the quarry is ninebark, physocarpus opulifolius. Stone habitats at the water’s edge of fleabane and small cottonwoods and willows (the willows past bloom). A locust-like shrub with long purple blooms, most likely a false indigo or amorpha, seen flowering at the water’s edge.

2007: The yard is quiet this morning – the grackle orientation of their young must have ended yesterday evening. Nine-bark in the alley is completely done blooming. A black swallowtail seen before lunch.

June 6th
The 157th Day of the Year

Therefore am I still a lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; (of all the mighty world)
well pleased to recognize
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.

William Wordsworth

Sunrise/set: 6:07/9:01 Day's Length: 14 hours 54 minutes
Average High/Low: 79/58 Average Temperature: 69
Record High: 97 - 1925 Record Low: 43 - 1894

Weather
This is one of the four driest days in June (the 10th, the 25th, and the 26th are the others), and rain passes through only once in a decade. Skies are clear 80 percent of the time, and the likelihood of temperatures in the 90s rises to 25 percent for the first time this year. Eighties occur 30 percent of the years, 70s forty percent, and there is only a slight possibility for cool 60s.

Natural Calendar
The mornings are getting quieter. Cardinals and blue jays have settled down. Blackbirds leave the nest this week. Baby robins have been out for a week or two. Canadian geese are molting. Firefly time starts now in average years, lasts through the first days of August. Oaks, osage orange, and black walnut trees have set their fruit. There are bud clusters on the milkweeds, buds on the delicate touch-me-nots, buds on the giant blue hosta, buds on the yucca and purple coneflowers, the mallow, balloon flower, and gay feather. Catchweed and chickweed die back, exhausted and matted. It’s the finale of watercress, pale and turned underside up. May apple foliage is yellowing. Jack-in-the-pulpits are wilting. Brown seeds drop from the small-flowered crowfoot. All the last fragrant mock orange petals scatter in the wind.

Daybook
1982: Old-field cinquefoil blooming now, vetch, lesser stitchwort, white campion, first Canadian thistle, bindweed by
Ellis Pond. Red-winged blackbirds still nesting in the wheat. By the swinging bridge, most of the water cress has gone to seed, replaced by wild forget-me-nots.

1983: Mill habitat: Sweet rockets and golden Alexander still dominate. Garlic mustard, ragwort, fleabane are gone, honeysuckles are fading, along with the tall buttercups. Nettles and grass waist high, tangled with catchweed (flowers turned to burs), make it hard to leave the path. Fire pinks still strong, clustered snakeroot full. Rockets, parsnip, clover, chickweed, and bright yellow goatsbeard color the field. Some waterleaf and wild geranium still blooming.

1986: Peak of strawberries in the yard. First third of a pint of
black raspberries.

1991: Balloon flower opens in the south garden. At Caesar Creek, the far fishing hole: one bass, one catfish, one bluegill.

1992: Peonies open in Madison, Wisconsin, not yet in Crookston, Minnesota, gone in Chicago. First crown vetch seen as I came south through Normal, Illinois. Throughout the lower Midwest, it’s peak parsnip and yellow clover time. Uncle Bill reported hummingbirds had come to Gentilly, two miles from Crookston, the last week of May.

1993: At four in the morning, birds quiet except twittering down the block. Cherries ripening a very little, some pale and yellowing, some a shade of orange. Mock orange petals dropping. Snow-on- the-mountain is full. Full sweet clover and wild roses, very first nodding thistle south of Kettering, the Canadian thistles about ready. White moth or butterfly (like a pieridae) seen in the grass, then again on the front porch.

1998: Record low of 41 this morning. Early summer stagnates.

1999: First black cricket hunter seen, last swamp iris bloom. First earwig in the bathroom.

2001: Catalpa flowers falling at Antioch School. Very last columbine in the east garden. Coral bells full bloom. Rockets, daisies and ranunculus fading quickly. Strawberries down to the last few pickings. Tadpoles, some with legs, released into the pond.

2004: Peak of mayfly hatch at Santee Cooper. Blue-flowered pickerel plant in full bloom with the water willow. Learned that catfish mate when the water reaches 60 degrees and that they go on a feeding frenzy when the mussels die in the heat of early June.

2005: First pink spirea seen at school in Washington Court House. Pale-leaved spirea flowering downtown in Yellow Springs. First coreopsis and foxglove open at home, coreopsis seen full bloom along the freeway, foxglove just off Limestone Street. Wheat gilding along the roads on the Ohio River. Peonies declining, mock orange suddenly collapsing in the heat. Privets coming in. Spinach and radishes going to seed.

2006: Return from Kelleys Island, elderberries seen opening by the roadside. At home, strawberries still not ripe, some rotting from the rain. Early panicled dogwood in the alley, full Japanese honeysuckle, lollypop lilies, white penstemon, privet. Some black mulberries starting to fall near Lawson Place and in the alley. Birds loud in the yard through the early evening, grackle families feeding together, the young – as big as the parents – demanding to be given food as they walk together in the grass. Lettuce holds in the garden, but the rhubarb is prostrate, the first crop gone, the second growth April size.

2007: Jeanie and I went strawberry picking today, got eight pounds. The man said the crop had started to come in just about ten days ago and that it would be gone in just a few more days. It was the hot weather, he said, that accelerated the season, cut it in half. Out in the countryside, the wheat was tall and gold green. Some corn was knee high. In the back yard this morning, the grackles and sparrows are back, babies pursuing their parents, screaming for food.

 

June 7th
The 158th Day of the Year

The exuberance of June…It began at daybreak with the chirping and chattering of birds close at hand and in widening circles around us. And then, what greater wonder than the rising of the sun? Even the nights, as yet without insect choirs, were alive. Fireflies against the mass of trees were flashing galaxies which repeatedly made and unmade abstract patters of light, voiceless as the stars overhead….

Harlan Hubbard

Sunrise/set: 6:07/9:01 Day's Length: 14 hours 54 minutes
Average High/Low: 80/58 Average Temperature: 69
Record High: 95 - 1933 Record Low: 43 - 1910

Weather
Skies are overcast more often on the 7th than on any other day of the month (55 percent of the time). Rain, however, comes an average of just one year in three. Temperatures are almost always above 70. There’s a 15 percent chance for heat in the 90s, fifty percent for a high in the 80s, thirty-five percent for 70s.

Natural Calendar
The breakdown of late spring becomes more apparent as poppies, daisies, columbines, pyrethrums, lupines, locust flowers, mock orange peonies, iris and sweet rockets disappear. Strawberries are thinning as black raspberries start their season. The darkening of the golden winter wheat measures the steady advance of early summer.

Daybook
1981: Fireflies began tonight.

1982: Squirrels half grown eating the new mulberries. Firefly season started tonight.

1984: First Canadian thistle blooms. Siberian iris completely gone (in five days). Most locust flowers gone, peonies starting to wilt.

1985: Parsnip and angelica to seed, and first buds on the milkweed. Tall meadow rue blooming.

1986: Burdock ready to flower. Moth mullein common and full. Pokeweed in the yard is seven feet tall and has small flower buds. First tropical storm of the year forming in the Caribbean. For several days now, flocks of gold finches seen along Wilberforce Clifton Road and at South Glen.

1987: First black raspberry eaten, last quart of strawberries picked. Squirrels and groundhogs noticed half grown. White waterleaf still late bloom. Walked by the Mill at nine o'clock tonight: the crickets were strong, frogs chanting. For the first time, mosquitoes were bothersome. Fireflies were common. The river had been high a couple of weeks ago, and the lizard's tail was coated with a film of silt. The water had made paths through the woods. Some sloughs were still full.

1988: Drought throughout Ohio and the Midwest is causing serious crop damage. Last poppies are blooming. Chicory opens in town. Daisies fading in the south garden. First raspberry eaten. Winter wheat turning more now; it pales at first, then becomes lighter and lighter green, then yellow, tan, gold, brown. Roadside smooth brome darkening, ripening like the wheat. Mock orange gone at home, still blooming in the Glen parking lot. No fireflies yet.

1990: Fishing at Caesar Creek, old fishing hole: one catfish, two perch, four carp in an hour and a half, mid to late afternoon, second quarter of the moon, muggy and hot. Frogs were loud, fish jumping everywhere. Carp sloshing along the shores. The catfish had been eating crayfish. On way home: wheat turning, mock orange almost gone.

1991: To Madison: Yellow sweet clover the dominant flower throughout the whole trip. Crown vetch also full. Some bright purple cow vetch, yarrow, spiderwort. Peonies still late bloom in Wisconsin, full-flowered mock orange. Parsnips seen at the same level in both Madison and Yellow Springs. Chicory bloomed most of the way up, and meadow goatsbeard.

1992: Returning to Yellow Springs after a week in Wisconsin: peonies, all iris, ranunculus, sweet rocket almost gone. Pyrethrum cut back, roses and daisies full. First red-orange lychnis blooms, and coreopsis fully budded. Gay feather and evening primrose budded. Gray aphids take over the old rocket stems. Cucumber beetles and new red and black beetles eating mums. Astilbe color shows, but not in bloom. Lilies budding. Strawberries coming in, spinach going to seed, tomatoes a foot and a half high.

1993: The violet clematis is glowing in the sun, full bloom. More and more Siberian iris wither. Lupine holds late. Osage, mock orange still falling. Peonies suddenly shriveling in the yard. Buds on the sweet peas, tiger lilies, hollyhocks, and south garden coneflowers.

1996: The rains continue, flooding and standing water everywhere. More than half the corn has still not been planted. East of the Mississippi, the crop will be light because of delays in seeding. In the West, dramatic drought. Here in the east garden the columbines are thinning as the astilbe reddens. In the north garden, the Siberian iris are dropping now, and the first garlic plants are starting to head up (down on Elm Street, wild garlic has had full tall heads for several days). In the west garden, the pyrethrums have passed their prime. Daisies have been beaten down by the rain; they are also fading. Sweet rockets have almost all gone to seed. First lamb's ear flowers. This evening, the first primrose came into bloom.

1997: The cool spring continues: Siberian iris holding, sweet Williams approaching their peak. Day lilies budding in Xenia. Rockets are still late full. Daisies full. Pyrethrum past prime, but still all right. Spiderwort fat and lush this year. Pale columbine almost all gone. Mock orange holds at full, some petals falling. Peonies in the yard full and firm. Now the spinach is at its peak, radishes too.

1998: Baby robin on the front sidewalk, the second this week. Yellow swallowtails are coming to the garden regularly now.

1999: Zinnias planted. Loud crows and cardinals, full morning song at 5:45 a.m. (EDT). First helianthus blooms in the south garden, totally full primrose.

2000: First helianthus and widow’s tears bloom. Primrose same as last year.

2003: Primrose full.

2004: Santee to Yellow Springs: Yucca seen in bloom at Spartanburg. The red periodic cicadas loud from 50 miles south of Cincinnati to about halfway to Dayton.

2005: The first purple coneflower and evening primrose opened today. Chicory seen in bloom.

2006: The Japanese pond iris were open this morning. Evening primrose is now in full bloom, along with the sweet William, lollipop lilies, lamb’s ear. Throughout the village, pink spirea is common, but our bush is still only budding.

2007: Japanese pond iris continue full bloom. Some grackle babies still being fed in the lawn. Many purple coneflowers now in bloom. First “green-eyed” Susan unravels in the east garden.

Before the roses and the longest day--
When garden-walks and all the grassy floor
With blossoms red and white of fallen May
And chestnut-flowers are strewn--

Matthew Arnold

June 8th
The 159th Day of the Year

To loll back, in a misty hammock, swung
From tip to tip of a slim crescent moon
That gems some royal-purple night of June,
To dream of songs that never have been sung
Since the first stars were stilled and God was young....

James Whitcomb Riley

Sunrise/set: 6:06/9:02 Day's Length: 14 hours 56 minutes
Average High/Low: 80/59 Average Temperature: 69
Record High: 96 - 1933 Record Low: 41 - 1901

Weather
This is one of the sunnier June days; it has a 90 percent chance for clear to partly cloudy conditions. Thunderstorms, however, occur about half the time. Temperatures are above 90 twenty-five percent of the years, in the 80s fifty-five percent, in the 70s fifteen percent. Low temperatures remain above 60 degrees 40 percent of the nights. A cool dawn in the 40s happens between five and 15 percent of the time.

The Weather of the Week Ahead
The second week of June always brings an increase in the likelihood of highs in the 90s, and the average percentage of afternoons in the 80s rises above the average percentage for 70s for the first time in the year. Highs in the cold 60s are rare, occurring just five percent of the days.
This week also brings more sunshine than almost any other week so far in the year: 85 percent of the days have at least partly cloudy skies. And the week also contains the second-driest day of the month, June 10th, which brings a shower only ten percent of the years. The 13th and 14th are also usually dry, both having just a 20 percent chance for rain. The wettest days in the period are June 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th, each having a 40 percent chance for rain.
Between June 8th and 11th, the average temperature rise slows to one degree in four days instead of late spring’s one degree in three. Then, between the 15th to the 19th, it climbs just one degree in five days, reaching its summer zenith.

Natural Calendar
Wild onions and domestic garlic get their seed bulbs as poison ivy, tiger lilies, and catalpas are budding. Large-flowered hydrangeas (like Anna Belle) reach full flower. Daisies, golden Alexander, cressleaf groundsel, sweet rocket and common fleabane still hold in the pastures, but garlic mustard and ragwort are almost gone. Spiders weave the first major network of cobwebs across the woodland paths. Young toads plod the forest floor. White-spotted skippers, tiger swallowtails, and red admirals sample the garden.

Daybook
1982: Clifton Gorge to Jacoby Road: Wild strawberries are red and ripe. Blue-eyed grass, yellow sedum, moneywort, sulfur cinquefoil, fire pinks, white violets (viola striata), daisy fleabane, last rockets, and columbines, a final ragwort, clumps of daisies, yellow sweet clover, yarrow, wild parsnip, angelica, wild roses, pepper plant, wild iris, poison ivy, and pink hedge bindweed are flowering.

1983: Fishing at Jacoby, I caught a bluegill and a carp. Flies, mosquitoes, and nettles bothersome. Sweet rockets and golden alexanders provided color to the dark green undergrowth. Three very young wood ducks. Wild iris full bloom.

1986: Madison, Wisconsin: Orange hawkweed just beginning. Leafy spurge, euphorbia esula, in full bloom through the countryside, turning the fields yellow.

1987: Yucca and crown vetch full bloom. Smooth brome and orchard grass becoming brown, red dock flowers complement their shades.

1988: First wild garlic blooms. Last white violets and sweet rocket. Chickweed has died in huge patches by the Covered Bridge, turning parts of the woods floor brown, catchweed yellowing beside it. Crown vetch full bloom, yucca not open. Woods dry from the drought, touch-me-nots and nettles wilting.

1989: Yellow Springs to Belize: Along the road to the Dayton airport, nodding thistles in early bloom, Canadian thistles only budding, and no chicory. Yesterday at South Glen along Grinnell, orchard grass was flowering and brome grass turning. It was full summer, the peak of all the first grasses. Tall meadow rue was unfolding. Blackberries and multiflora roses were completely open.
In Belize, flamboyant trees were orange and red, full bloom. Mangoes and cashews, said the taxi driver, were just coming in. Hibiscus was blossoming throughout the capital. I saw the bright milkweed-like plant again, and yellow snapdragon weed, and low bindweeds. The rains have not started yet.

1990: First raspberry reddens, cherries turning.

1991: The paling of winter wheat in early June, then lighter and lighter green, then yellow, then tan, gold, brown, the smooth brome and orchard grass following, and dock's red flowers darkening the roadsides more. Dominance of parsnips, yarrow, honewort, sweet clovers, wild daisies, crown vetch, elderberry, honeysuckle berries, thistles, motherwort, clustered snakeroot, chicory, trefoil, yucca, hemlock, purple vetch, the very first great mullein. There are patches of dying catchweed and chickweed yellow and matted. The last of the mock orange and the best roses now, angelica past its prime, decline of strawberries, end of the watercress – pale and turned underside up, May apple foliage yellowing, multifloras done, first black raspberry ready, high tide of early summer.

1992: At Caesar Creek, four big cats, a carp, and a bullhead all from far hole between 1:15 and 2:30. The catfish are in, the summer starting. Warblers and finches strong, multiflora roses dense full bloom by the inlet.

1993: Into South Glen: First white-spotted skipper, first blues, first black swallowtail (with blue on the edge of its wings). Blue damselflies, florescent green ones, and black ones, the latter most common. First mosquito. First moneywort. White waterleaf full bloom, white violets are still holding, the last of the spring flowers.

1996: Spent flower heads of the Siberian iris taken off today, pyrethrums and rockets cut back. The May garden is over. Rains continue. Osage flower stems fallen along Dayton Street and around the work shed in the yard. Yuccas tall and budding in Fairborn, seven miles from Yellow Springs.

1997: Siberian iris in decline, last of the lupines. This year is becoming even later than last year, turning into the coldest spring and early summer in the past 19 years.

1998: Wheat is yellowing all the way up to Lake Erie. Catalpas are in bloom, daisies, sweet clover, elderberries, day lilies, and coreopsis, line the highways north. In Savannah, Ohio, 100 miles north of Yellow Springs, the landscape is a week behind home, peonies still holding late.

2000: Yesterday, early summer earwigs in the bathtub. Moneywort was in full bloom along High Street, dock full of its small red flowers everywhere. The white anemones in front of Suzy’s house are down to maybe a fourth of their blossoms. This morning, the first yellow day lilies are open in the south garden, the plants just west of the early tigers. Purple loosestrife was showing a little pink on its tips before I cut it back. More yucca flowers noticed.

2001: Oakleaf hydrangea blooms at the library.

2002: First firefly. Elderberries starting to blossom now.

2003: The white mulberry is heavy with fruit. The first Oriental lily opened this morning, soft pink. Osage flower stems cover the roof of the shed.

2004: Oakleaf hydrangea at home has been blooming for three or four days. The first mallow and the first Larkspur opened in the north garden. Zinnas are budding. Baby rabbit seen in the lawn. Baby robin in the woodshed. I had to lift it out on the end of a broom. Jean reports frogs calling along Corey Street during the daytime. At night, some kind of frog is calling from the trees across Dayton Street. Yellow evening primroses hold. Stella d’oro lilies full everywhere, Heliopsis full along the bike path, yucca full in town. Achillea is in bloom, the pinks, whites and yellows, in the north garden. This morning, the very first robins began to twitter at 3:40 a.m. (EST). The first cardinal sang at 4:25 a.m.

2005: Full bloom of roses, spiderwort, catmint, rockets, sweet Williams, dead nettle. Small coreopsis budding. Penstemon reaches early full. Most catalpas in bloom, but one tree on South College Street has started to shed.

2007: A few catalpas remain in bloom. All rockets are gone – have been for at last a week. Penstemon in the garden is in decline, most sweet Williams fading. Oak leaf hydrangea is more than half flowered. Baby rabbit seen in the vegetable garden. Pale-leafed Heliopsis has been in bloom for at least five days. Wisteria has been gone about a week. Yellow primroses continue in the north garden.