June 9th
The 160th Day of the Year

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:

James Russell Lowell

Sunrise/set: 6:06/9:02 Day's Length: 14 hours 56 minutes
Average High/Low: 80/59 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 94 - 1914 Record Low: 40 - 1913

Weather
The sun almost always (90 percent of the time) shines today, and there is a 15 percent chance for a high in the 90s, fifty percent chance for 80s, thirty percent for 70s and five percent for cold 60s. Thunderstorms come one year in three, but an all-day rain only one in 15.

Natural Calendar
Between the 9th of June and the 3rd of July, the day's length varies by no more than five minutes. English rye grass and the first Queen Anne's lace flower. Cherries become ripe enough for pie, and their season lasts through the end of the month.

Daybook
1982: First raspberry ripe today. First garden primrose unravels.

1983: Siberian iris bloom ends today.

1984: First two fireflies. First cucumber beetles seen.

1987: Wild roses gone by today. Staghorns noticed on the sumac, cherries ready to pick. Peaches half size. First great mullein and milkweed bloom. The seventeen-year cicadas are still singing. Blackberries have set fruit, red and orange berries coming out on the honeysuckles, elderberries full bloom, fire pink, Deptford pink full. First raspberries are coming in during the last days of the strawberries. Wild daisies strong, last long after those in the yard. First grasshopper seen. Two catalpas seen full bloom.

1988: Belize: Blackbirds whistle at 4:50 a.m., a half an hour after the first light on the horizon, half an hour before dawn, the same schedule as the cardinals in Yellow Springs. On the way to Altun Ha, the milpas have still not been planted with corn because the rains have not begun yet. Saw a few papayas turning red.

1990: First feverfew. First garden primrose.

1991: Doorweed, polygonum aviculare, open in the east garden.

1992: Catalpas full bloom, cherries ripen.

1993: Only five or six Siberian iris left, lupines almost completely gone. Chives tattered, drooping and brown, the yesterday’s perfect purple clematis shattered in the heavy rainstorm. The bright poppies gone, red pyrethrum becoming pale, decaying suddenly. First yellow sundrop opens its season. Catalpas seen in bloom on the way to Dayton.

1996: Cherries green, the size of pits.

1997: The first yellow primroses and the first lamb’s ear bloomed today. Only four or five Siberian iris remain, and the peonies are beginning to lose their freshness. In the countryside, some locusts still hold their flowers. Along the bike path: blueweed in early bloom, the very first Canadian thistle, full Miami mist, fire pink, very late wild geraniums hold in the shade, burdock sending up giant stalks (at the same time as the yucca in town), dogbane budding (like the new gooseneck in the garden), blue-eyed grass, small-flowered and large-flowered cinquefoil. Rockets late but still dominant in South Glen. Parsnips and hemlock about equal with the number of flowers and seeds: maybe 75 percent still blossoming, the balance in green seeds.

1998: The first few black raspberries are now red.

1999: Yellow Springs to Utica, NY: Yellow sweet clover, crown vetch and daisies prominent along the roadsides. Near Erie, PA, the very last locust flowers, iris, and rhododendrons seen, putting the lakeshore ten to fourteen days behind Greene County this year (but close to 1997 in Yellow Springs). All along the coast and into New York, grape vines with new leaves and parsnips, hemlock and multiflora roses in full bloom.

2000: Japanese honeysuckle still fragrant. The north garden’s roses are all open, healthy, no beetles yet. The lilies are blooming just in one small patch, the two orange Asiatics and one yellow day lily. First yellow buds on the tall south-garden yarrow. The first firefly tonight.

2001: First violet water willow opens in the pond. Apples start to come down from the old tree. As we sat in the back yard this evening, we could hear mulberries falling to the north garden behind us.

2002: Astilbe early full bloom.

2003: Tree lilac flowers are coming to the end of their bloom. Kousa dogwoods hold strong.

2004: First Frances Williams hosta has bloomed. Goosefoot has developed white flower buds. Lilies, achillea, roses, catmint, the new violet clematis, and astilbe transition the garden from late spring to early summer.

2005: First Heliopsis and Japanese water iris unraveled overnight. Coreopsis is full now, another Asiatic lily starting (pale lavender), and the more delicate Turk’s cap. Rockets have started to seed. Achillea has turned yellow. The neighbors’ houses have pretty much disappeared behind the border foliage. Japanese honeysuckle coming in, just a few days behind the privets. Weigela suddenly gone. Yellow swallowtail seen.

2006: A cardinal woke me up at 3:55 a.m. (EST). Crows called in the back trees at 6:15, about the same time as usual. First monarch seen in the alley at 9:00 (Jean had seen one at school a week or so ago).
2007: First chicory open along Dayton Street this morning. Panicled dogwood and linden tree in full bloom along the alley. Lizard’s tail about a third in bloom. Drought developing throughout the region, especially severe along the Ohio River. Crops look good at the moment here, but gradual stressing expected over the next week.

2008: In the pond, I saw the first tadpole with legs. First small bud on the pond’s lizard’s tail. First pale pink astilbe is coming in under the redbud tree. First pink smartweed seen in the garden. The first red early phlox opened overnight. White mulberries falling into the undergrowth. A monarch and a question mark butterfly seen in the yard this morning. Tulip tree is still in full bloom along Davis Street. At South Glen, Timothy and bottle grass sweet to chew, tall brome grass, chest high, with pollen, rockets almost gone, clustered snakeroot getting old, maple-leaved waterleaf and multiflora roses still in bloom, honewort flowering. Blackberries and black raspberries have set fruit, but it appears no raspberries will be ripe for a while. Wood nettle almost chest high. Along the river, one box elder tree has been uprooted, and the bottomland shows signs of major flooding after last week’s rains, the water up as far as I’ve seen it. East near Indianapolis, whole towns have been under water. Loud chattering of grackles in the back yard trees throughout the day. Strong robin song at dusk. Tick found on my leg before I went to bed.

June 10th
The 161st Day of the Year

Sleep not, dream not; this bright day
Will not, cannot last for aye.

Emily Bronte

Sunrise/set: 6:06/9:03 Day's Length: 14 hours 57 minutes
Average High/Low: 81/59 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 100 - 1911 Record Low: 43 - 1977

Weather
This is typically one of the finest days in all of June, with rain and cloudy skies occurring just ten percent of the time. Fifteen percent of the afternoons are in the cool 60s - the last time for that considerable percentage until August 28th. Highs are in the mild 70s forty percent of the time, in the 80s twenty-five percent, in the 90s twenty percent.

Natural Calendar
Wild multiflora roses often start to fade now, and the first bindweed goes to seed. Chiggers bite near this date; their season lasts through August. Most deer have been born.

Daybook
1982: Chicory blooming. End of the mock orange. Mulberries are starting to come in, a few cherries ready to eat.

1984: Catalpas begin. Yucca stems are tall now, budding. Squirrel tail grass seen along the freeway.

1986: First yucca flowers noticed.

1987: A light earthquake this evening, around eight o'clock. Just a strange tremor, then it was over.

1988: Still no fireflies. Teasel and goldenrod knee high, wingstem to my waist. First black raspberry just turning. First moneywort seen, early blueweed. Red clover dying in the drought, flowers rusty, foliage withered. Blackberry fruit is set, last flowers falling. Angelica half to seed, stems red. Daisy fleabane and motherwort full bloom, meadow rue and dogbane budding. Bull thistles and yellow thistles, irsium horridulum, are ready to blossom. Fresh, heavy sweet scent in the air, despite the lack of rain.

1990: Catalpas full bloom, iris and peonies all gone, air fragrant with the full bloom of privets, which replaced the mock orange in perfect sequence. Smooth nettle and first daisy fleabane coming in, very first mulberries falling to the street. Elderberries heading up. Most iris are gone now, some peonies still sighted. Goslings at Ellis Pond a fourth grown.

1992: First coreopsis today in the south garden. Lychnis early bloom. Evening primrose suddenly full bloom. Daisies still full, pyrethrum faded. First tall yarrow buds. Most all mock orange gone. First tiger lily opens along the north garden. Very last Siberian iris disappears. The last two regular iris hold on.

1993: First tiger lily opens in the yard, first veronica. Japanese honeysuckle early full bloom in the village. Very early Canadian thistles. First firefly of the year seen at the top of the apple tree in the back yard.

1998: Three new fish brought home for the pond today, a white mottled one with shining scales, a tan and orange with white pectoral fins, a fan-tailed gold. A young blackbird found dying in the lawn. Peak yellow sweet clover and hemlock. Beans planted a week ago break ground. Early hostas with white and green leaves are now in bloom, and the great blue hosta has white buds.

1999: Utica, New York to Bar Harbor, Maine: Leaving June behind. Bleeding hearts seen in New Hampshire. Orange hawkweed common throughout the Northeast. Lupines widespread. Lower Maine full of locust flowers, full bloom by the time we reached Augusta. Poppies, iris, peonies and lilacs throughout, especially as we came closer to the northern coast. Tall buttercups from Erie east to Bar Harbor. Parsnips and hemlock and wild roses, blackberry flowers, wild pink roses, May gathering momentum the farther north we went.

2000: A third orange Asiatic lily opened today to the west of the yellow day lily. The very first hollyhock, a deep violet red, opened halfway. The first mallow bud was pink. The first ripe black raspberry eaten from the north garden. Red mulberries and white mulberries ripest now, falling to the street. Garlic stalks with fully developed seed heads. Great blue hosta ready to open, and another smaller variety in the hosta-astilbe bed.

2001: Ranunculus gone. Full mulberry time. Full yellow primrose and yellow stella d’oro day lilies.

2003: At 5:45 a.m. (EDT), the blackbirds had already joined the morning chorus, apparently up early for the mulberries.

2005: South Glen: Daddy longlegs everywhere in the shade, hunting on the ground and on top of the wood nettle. Gold-collared black flies mating, damselflies common near the river. Rockets mostly to seed, multiflora roses late, black walnut fruits about half an inch across, Osage flower stems covering the path. A pair of pileated woodpeckers seen working a branch in tandem, one on one side, one on the other. Red and white mulberries dropping to the ground. Pink smartweed blossoming in the garden. Final rhododendron and bleeding heart flowers wither.

2007: No privet flowers seen for a long time. No dark mulberries noticed in the village. Were they (and most of the privets) hurt by the April freeze? The birds are quieter in the yard this morning, and the pre-dawn chatter seems more subdued. Perhaps this is a molting time, a time after the turbulence of fledglings leaving the nest. In the garden, it seems I have a more difficult now keeping a handle on the different seasons. The summary essays I wrote at the turn of the century are about a week out of sync now, and I work to see where I am in the season.

2008: The first pale yellow day lily bloomed overnight, and saw the first gold-collared blackfly on the Jerusalem artichokes this morning.

June 11th
The 162nd Day of the Year

Where'er you walk cool gales shall fan the glade;
Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade;
Where'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.

Alexander Pope

Sunrise/set: 6:06/9:03 Day's Length: 14 hours 57 minutes
Average High/Low: 81/60 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 96 - 1911 Record Low: 40 - 1972

Weather
There is a ten percent chance for a high in the 90s today, 55 percent for 80s, thirty percent for 70s, five percent for 60s. The sky is clear to partly cloudy eight years in ten, but rain comes 50 percent of the time. The morning is cool (in the 40s or 50s) two thirds of the years, the last time the percentage is so high until September 15th.

Natural Calendar
The violet heads of May’s chives droop and decay. Tall buttercups recede into the wetlands. The blossoms of the scarlet pyrethrums, blue lupines, and Siberian iris come apart. Nettles and grasses reach waist high and tangle with catchweed (flowers turned to burs). Giant yucca plants send up their firm stalks not only here in Yellow Springs but deep in the Caribbean.

Chiggers and Japanese Beetles
A survey of “first chigger bites” and “first Japanese beetle sightings” from today through July 5th between the early 1980s and the first several years of the 21st century offers a tentative timetable for the onslaught of these two insects. Easy markers for the beginning of the chigger and beetle season are red honeysuckle berries, half-grown black walnuts and Osage orange fruits, ripening wild black raspberries, and sighting of the first stag beetle (a beetle which does no harm to humans or gardens).

June 11, 1986: At South Glen, I got my first chigger bite of the year.
June 11, 1988: First chigger bite.
June 15, 1986: Red berries on the King Street honeysuckles now.
June 16, 2004: First Japanese beetles found on the ferns. As I walked down High Street with Bella, a small, green Osage fruit, maybe two inches in diameter, fell from a tree onto the sidewalk and broke in half.
June 16, 2005: Jeanie got the first chigger bites of the year today, about five days later than the earliest years.
June 17, 1982: First red berries noticed on the honeysuckle.
June 17, 2004: First chigger bites in the garden.
June 18, 1987: Young geese half grown, moving in an extended family, four adults, five goslings. Groundhogs a third grown. I'm full of chiggers after a day walking.
June 18, 1991: First stag beetle came to the porch after dark.
June 18, 1993: Black walnuts half an inch to an inch in diameter.
June 18, 2001: First pale blue-bodied dragonfly at the pond. Chiggers have attacked me!
June 21, 1998: Five Japanese beetles in the roses.
June 21, 1999: A few Japanese beetles in the roses.
June 21, 2004: Home from southern Wisconsin: Japanese beetles have eaten the roses.
June 25, 2001: First red monarda opened in the southeast garden today. First Japanese beetle found in the roses.
June 26, 2003: I got my first chigger bites today; Jeanie was attacked yesterday.
June 29, 1982: First chigger bites from walk in the woods.
June 30, 1993: First Japanese beetles found in the roses, have probably been out a couple days.
June 30, 2003: First Japanese beetles found in the roses.
July 1, 1996: Japanese beetles arrived on June 30th. Along Dayton-Yellow Springs Road, Canadian thistles going to seed; elderberry bushes full bloom.
July 2, 1983: One quart of black raspberries picked along the railroad tracks. First chigger bite of the year.
July 5, 1997: First Japanese beetle found on the roses.

Daybook
1982: End of catalpa flowers.

1983: Bluegills still guard their nests at the Bletzinger's pond.

1984: A few peonies, the medium pink, hang on in the village. Motherwort bloomed today. An indigo bunting seen, the first ever.

1985: Yucca blooming today.

1986: At South Glen, smooth brome had droplets of yellow pollen. Teasel heads were three-fourths of an inch long. I got my first chigger bite of the year. First wild petunia seen. Water willow full bloom in the Little Miami River.

1988: No fireflies yet. First teasel head found, three fourths of an inch tall. Timothy emerges from its sheath. First chigger bite noticed.

1989: Belize: west to the Guatemalan border. The land dry throughout, until Benque Viejo where it had rained six hours straight on the 10th. North into the outcroppings of stone, the horizon was gray from field fires. An Indian told me the milpas were burned beginning around May 15th, the corn and beans planted after the first soaking rain. At the ruins of Benque Viejo, the sky was identical to last year's here on the 23rd, dramatic, high cirrus sweeping up over Guatemala. Returning to Belize City, I saw water lilies blooming in the river.

1991: First hollyhocks open in the yard. First large dish of black raspberries picked; some reds will be ready in a few days. Our tree of heaven completed its flowering today.

1993: At home, first deep orange lychnis opened, first motherwort. Red astilbe color shows clearly now. Along the way to Caesar Creek, the catalpas were in full bloom, their white flowers replacing the locusts, exotic, tropical. The sky was divided, clear to the north, mostly cloudy to the south; I fished exactly between a cool front and a warm front for most of the day. The lake was sweet with the smell of multiflora roses and boxwood, loud with the sucking and splashing of carp, boisterous flicker calls, the brow, brow, brow of bullfrogs, steady jumping of small and large fish across the water, whine of catbirds. A curious red admiral butterfly rested on my cooler, unafraid as I got bait and moved about the boat. He flew away after a while, came back in 20 minutes, then he was replaced by a persistent blue who landed on my shirt, tasted the sweat. Then later, a brown visited, like the one that stayed with me at the other catfish hole two years ago. Water bugs mating, swallows hunting back and forth across the lake. A pair of flickers came to the dead osage above my bobbers. They courted, kissed for a minute, then the male mounted, they mated a few seconds, and they were gone. Three large catfish caught in five hours.

1997: The coolest year on record so far: mock orange petals three-fourths fallen, with the locust leaves a third of their summer size, the last Siberian iris blooming, the full bloom of sweet Williams and lady’s mantel, the early days of privet. On the way home from school, the first yellow day lily seen along Grinnell Road. In the garden, spinach is going to seed and radishes hot, peppers and tomatoes in flower, lettuce and kale getting body. Thyme and parsley are ready to use. At the Cascades, there were tiny locust petals and fragments of tulip tree flowers scattered across the path. On the forest floor only the white violets and the waterleaf were in bloom.

1998: Blackbirds have been chattering steadily all morning, the ritual of the young leaving the nest and the rituals of the feasting on mulberries and raspberries. Large white buds grow more prominent on the great blue hosta. The Francis Thompson hosta planted just a week or so ago has opened almost all the way, and the variegated hosta is fully stalked and budding. Yuccas are high, but none seen blooming yet.

1999: Acadia National Park, Maine: Full young rhododendrons, roses, bluettes, blue-eyed grass, bunchberry, swamp valerian.

2000: This morning when I got home from work, I found that a pink Asiatic lily had bloomed overnight, west of the latest orange. Along the freeway this afternoon, hemlock two-thirds to seed, maybe a fourth of the thistles. In Dayton, some hollyhocks and hosta seen in early full bloom; at home, two hollyhocks have emerged, and the great blue hosta is opening. The first pale violet mallow flower came in too. First purple coneflower seen in the village. More fireflies are out tonight.

2001: Tiger lilies finally starting along the roadsides. Astilbe full bloom at home.

2002: Astilbe continues in full bloom. The third orange Asiatic lily opened today. Catalpas holding on.

2003: The first orange Asiatic lily opened today, and the first Shasta daisy unraveled. First trumpet creeper seen. Full bloom time for primrose, achillea, white penstemon, sweet William, spiderwort, peach-leafed bellflower. Now the stella d’oro lilies are starting to come in throughout the area. The robin chorus was light at 5:00 a.m. (EDT), and grew steadily for an hour and a half. Doves joined in at 5:40, a few cardinals and blackbirds near 6:00.

2004: This year, the white penstemon and the peach-leafed bellflowers are now almost done.

2005: The dark-purple water iris hold for a second day. The spirea bush in the back yard and one orange day lily in the northwest garden, one astilbe under the redbud tree opened last night. Oak-leaf hydrangeas are starting to produce petals. Pie cherries and service berries are ripening on Dayton Street, pacing the mulberries.

2006: Fully grown camel cricket in Jeanie’s tea cup this morning.

2007: Monarch butterfly visits the sweet Williams in the late morning. Young grackles still being fed in the yard this afternoon.

Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge,
The glow-worm lights his gems; and, through the dark,
A moving radiance twinkles.

James Thomson

June 12th
The 163rd Day of the Year

Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.
Dr. Boteler (in Isaac Walton)

Sunrise/set: 6:06/9:04 Day's Length:14 hours 58 minutes
Average High/Low: 81/60 Average Temperature: 70
Record High: 95 - 1902 Record Low: 42 - 1888

Weather
A cold and rainy June 12th can occur once in a decade (that happened in 1985: precipitation and a high of only 52), and thunderstorms pass through half of all the years. But the sun still shines at least a little three days in four, and highs reach above 90 on15 percent of the afternoons, are in the 80s fifty percent of the time, in the 70s thirty percent. A minimum of 100 frost free days
remain in the growing season of the Ohio Valley.

Natural Calendar
Sawfly larvae eat the leaves on the mountain ash. Head scab and glume blotch develop on the winter wheat. Lace bugs cause yellow spotting on sycamores, oaks, and azaleas. The first generation of sod webworms is usually born near this date. The very first trumpet vines sport bright red-orange trumpets, the first blue chicory blossoms, first Deptford pink, first great mullein.

Daybook
1983: First day lily noticed along Grinnell.

1984: First day lily seen on Grinnell. First raspberry turning red.

1986: Thimble plant and hobblebush blossoming. Wood nettles dominate the undergrowth, with clovers, elderberries, panicled dogwoods still full bloom along the roadsides. Tall meadow rue is still open at South Glen. Angelica and parsnips have as many seeds as blossoms. Milkweed is budding, timothy full bloom, cherries and black raspberries are reaching their best. Only a few sweet rockets are left. First chigger bite this afternoon.

1987: First hemlock is rusting.

1988: Worst drought since 1934. All the northwest Ohio crops are ruined. Lawns and pastures are drying up, thistles wilting by the side of the road. More animals run over on the highways. Few insects about, no water available besides the rare morning dew. At home, the strawberry peak is over, yucca is budding. Lizard's tail is developing small bud heads along the river.

1989: Caye Caulker, an island one hour into the reef off the coast of Belize, at the beginning of the rainy season: 18 wild flowering plants, seven different shrubs and trees found. Familiar horseweed starting to bloom a month before it comes in at South Glen. I wandered along the mangroves, swam in the hot, clear water at the southern tip of the land, collected what appeared to be verbenaceae, eleusine indica, fabaceae, and ageratrum conyzoides.

1993: First carnation, and garden lily, last pyrethrum. Hawthorns are in full bloom throughout Yellow Springs and Wilberforce. On an oak branch fallen in the wind, acorns have set tiny green nuggets. Pink spirea shrubs are in full bloom. Silver olive flowers gone.

1997: Flickers call throughout most of the morning in the woods behind the yar. Cardinals are quieter now. Robins still chirping near dawn. Mourning doves calling. At the village pond, goslings half size, the size of adult ducks.

1999: Acadia, Bar Harbor, Maine: A late pink lady slipper found by the campsite. A local writer says they come out around the 1st of June. Lambkill/sheep laurel identified, circle flour, four petal moss flower, haircap moss. Blueberries, some still flowering, and some have set fruit. Tall meadow rue up but not flowering. More plants: tall Robin’s ragwort, three-toothed cinquefoil, columbine, wild flags, spreading dogbane, beach pea, white Labrador tea, pink herb Robert, witherod (viburnum cassinoides), yellow-flowered bush honeysuckle, wild strawberries, mountain laurel budded, yellow water lily, pink marsh cinquefoil, snowball viburnum, bridal wreath spirea, and full poppies (almost exactly 30 days behind Yellow Springs).

2000: To Springfield, then John Bryant Park: Wheat is rich green-gold. Chicory is finally open. Trumpet creeper seen blossoming on a telephone pole. Yarrow and elderberry full bloom. Orange honeysuckle berries under the canopy, leafcup and hobblebush ready to bloom. Last of the old maple-leafed waterleaf and clustered snakeroot, full honewort. Black swallowtail seen.

2001: Yucca in the yard, planted years ago, finally blooms, the first yucca in town, from what I can see. Elderberry seen open on the way to Chillicothe. Tall cressleaf groundsel dying back in the fields near Jamestown. In the countryside, parsnips and hemlock dominate, although the hemlock around Yellow Springs has come to the end of its cycle. In the water garden, lizard’s tail has formed its flower.

2002: First Heliopsis bloomed in the north garden. Honewort full bloom in the North Glen.

2003: First chicory seen in bloom along the freeway this morning. First black raspberry eaten. Tattered, dark pink peonies still hold on the west side of Mrs. Lawson’s old house on the corner of High and Dayton Streets. No fireflies seen yet this cool early summer.

2004: Greg told me that the first butterfly plant (not bush) bloomed in his yard today. Very last cressleaf groundsel cut back in the north garden. Many Canadian thistles to seed along Dayton-Yellow Springs Road. Yucca full bloom in Xenia.

2005: The first monarch butterfly seen in the yard today; it was taken with the sweet Williams. In the pond, the Japanese iris reach full bloom then are beaten down by rain. The first water willows are open beside them. In the north garden, the first yellow day lily came in over night and the first tall mallow flowers. John reports that mayflies emerged today at the Santee Cooper reservoir in South Carolina. He added that catfish were only biting on the flats, not in the channel.

2006: First fireflies in the cool evening.

2007: Last night was the first night of more than just a few fireflies. Today, the yellow primrose is declining quickly. Monarda is heading up in the north and south gardens. Birdsong continues to change: doves still call, and the grackles are loud and steady, but the cardinals have stopped singing after dawn. First pink mallow bloomed by noon. Japanese iris finished their season with yesterday’s blossoms. This afternoon several young robins and fledgling grackles enjoyed the water from the sprinkler in the back yard. Adults continue to feed both the baby robins and grackles. One milkweed plant opening near the park this evening.

June 13th
The 164th Day of the Year

Then let us, one and all, be contented with our lot;
The June is here this morning, and the sun is shining hot!

James Whitcomb Riley

Sunrise/set: 6:06/9:04 Day's Length: 14 hours 58 minutes
Average High/Low: 81/60 Average Temperature: 71
Record High: 95 - 1902 Record Low: 42 - 1903

Weather
Today, the 14th, and the 15th are the June days most likely to produce highs in the 90s (there's a 35 percent chance for 90s) and the 80s (a 45 percent chance of those). The remaining percentage falls to 70s. Skies are mostly clear to partly cloudy (completely overcast conditions come only 15 percent of the time), and rain falls just one day in four.

Natural Calendar
Young grackles are out of the nest this week, joining their parents to harvest the ripening cherries and mulberries, and filling the Village with their cackles. Japanese beetles appear in the field and garden. Painted turtles and box turtles are out laying eggs near Mill Dam and into South Glen. The fearsome (but harmless) stag beetle waddles across your porch after dark. On Lake Erie, walleye fishing is usually at its best.
Ohio winter wheat is almost all headed by this date, and a third of the crop is turning from green to gold. The first cut of alfalfa hay is almost complete in an average year. Most of the soybeans and sunflowers have been planted. In the alleys, bottle grass is sweet and young. Acorns are forming in the woods.

Daybook
1980: Multiflora roses complete their bloom.

1981: First raspberry eaten today (the season lasted 28 days this year). A few final strawberries: their season lasted 17 days.

1983: The end of the mock orange flowers, a three-week season.

1984: First great mullein flowers along Grinnell and Wilberforce-Clifton Roads. Family of woodchucks seen, the young maybe two months old.

1985: Middle summer already here, mosquitoes biting full force in the yard, angelica fading at Middle Prairie, watercress lying toppled over like a tangle of dead snakes; wild petunia, bedstraw, hobblebush, Indian hemp are open, Deptford pinks in bloom, last of the daisies, first of the black-eyed Susans. Leafcup budding. White beardtongue, penstemon digitalis, found, has been blooming maybe a week.

1987: Birds quieter before dawn this morning, then pick up about seven o'clock. Cherries coming in all at once. Black raspberries ripened overnight for a first bowl at breakfast. Roadsides are bright with yellow sweet clover, chicory, red clover, bird's foot trefoil. Trumpet creeper seen, has been out maybe three or four days. Yucca are in full bloom, great mullein getting ready, along with the milkweed. Orchard grass and volunteer wheat are
brown. Mosquitoes biting in the yard at night, fireflies all here.

1988: First black raspberry is just ready. No fireflies yet.

1990: First chicory seen today.

1991: Identical to my notes this week of 1987.

1993: The grackles are here to eat the cherries and mulberries, the yard full of the sound of their wings and calls. First sweet pea opening. Fireflies came out of the high canopy tonight, a few blinking in the yard.

1998: Mallow opened today in the south garden. The first centipede of summer appeared on the bathroom wall, the first Japanese beetle in the garden.

1999: Maine: Full peonies throughout the area, plain green-leafed snow-on-the-mountain in bloom.

2000: Faint chorus at 4:30 a.m. (EDT), then by 5:20, the cardinals are coming in.

2002: Water willow bloomed in the pond today. The first violet Asiatic lily opened in the north garden. The first Frances William hosta blossomed, too.

2003: At the entry to South Glen beyond the covered bridge, past the only buckeye on a small tree, I came on a colony of blooming wood nettle, almost as high as my waist, that spread out around me hundreds of yards in all directions. Innocuous and lying close to the ground a few weeks ago, the nettle had taken over this entryway to the Glen, making a stinging but idyllic barrier to the river on the right and the hills on the left. Only a few pale moths, daddy longlegs, and a green-bodied damselfly navigated the surface of the new floral hegemon. Only the licorice seeds of April’s sweet Cicely, a few struggling honewort, and black snakeroot were visible in the mass of rough, toothed nettle leaves. I could remember the layers of this past spring beneath them: wild ginger, blue cohosh, cut-leafed toothwort, violets, hepatica, large-flowered trillium, bloodroot, violet cress, and early meadow rue. But they were as inaccessible as the periodic cicadas that lay a little further down waiting for May.

2004: Around the yard: mid-season hostas are budding. The first Japanese iris unravels. Lizard’s tail, water willow, astilbe, oakleaf hydrangea are full. Sweet Williams and lamb’s ear very late. First foxglove, early gooseneck, trumpet creeper. Ironweed and butterfly bush are up to four feet, Joe Pye past six feet. Black swallowtail seen.

2006: Cardinals and robins still strong early. Crows at 5:55 (EDT) a.m. Walk in the cool morning: Honewort in the dark woods, touch-me-nots waist high and climbing, one late mock orange near the river, one Kousa dogwood not far away, mulberries falling throughout town, pie cherries ripe along Dayton Street.

2007: Grackles still feeding their young in the back yard. Pink smartweed is blooming in the front garden, hollyhocks in the far alley, trumpet creeper along Limestone Street. Lots of fireflies tonight.

June 14th
The 165th Day of the Year

Taste the sugar berry sugar purple berry
sugar wild hot sugar sunning sugar berry
sugar in the sun.

Leon Quel

Sunrise/set: 6:06/9:05 Day's Length: 14 hours 59 minutes
Average High/Low: 82/61 Average Temperature: 71
Record High: 94 - 1895 Record Low: 46 - 1978

Weather
This is typically a hot day (40 percent chance of 90s, fifty percent for 80s, just ten percent chance for 70s), with a 90 percent chance of sun, and only a 15 percent chance for a passing thunderstorm. Cool mornings in the 50s occur just twice in a decade, making this the first time so far this year that the chances for lows in the 60s reach 80 percent.

Natural Calendar
When the canopy has closed overhead, and winter wheat is a soft, pale green, and the clovers and vetches are all coming in, then it’s the best time of year for golden parsnip blossoms throughout the countryside. Catalpas and privets and hawthorns and spirea bloom at parsnip time, and the number of fireflies grows in proportion to the flowers on the day lilies. The first nodding thistle, first Canadian thistle, the first chicory, first daisy fleabane, the first great mullein, the first Asiatic lily, first tall meadow rue, and the first lychnis open. The first raspberry reddens, and the first orange trumpet creeper blows. Bindweeds and sweet peas color the fences with pastels.

Daybook
1980: Mulberries ripening.

1982: Young blackbirds in the yard, trying to fly.

1984: First raspberry ripe today.

1988: First tall violet mallow blooms today along the south wall. First wild petunia found. Goslings, a third to half grown, cross the highway south of town with five or six adults. Painted turtle laying eggs in the path near Mill Dam. At sundown, carp lie near the surface of the river near shore, drifting listlessly.

1990: Some of the mulberry crop is gone now. Blueweed is in full bloom.

1991: Mulberries peak, fall to the street purple. They came in early, stayed just two weeks in the drought and heat. To Columbus: parsnips and sweet clover still bright, crown vetch rich, trumpet creeper seen full bloom.

1995: To St. Louis: Through Indianapolis, the land lush with yellow sweet clover, trefoil, purple cow vetch, pink crown vetch, poison hemlock, wild parsnips, yellow moth mullein. The wheat is golden green. At about 180 miles southwest of Yellow Springs, the first white sweet clover comes into bloom, the first sign that we are driving deeper into summer. About 250 miles from home, the first milkweed opens, and cattails are twice as tall as they are at
Jacoby. Wheat browns rapidly as we approach St. Louis. Yucca is in full bloom, and half the white hemlock flowers have suddenly turned to seeds. Nodding thistles, still fresh and full in Greene County, begin to break apart, more than half of them to thistle down along the Mississippi. In eight hours, how far have I gone? A week for sure, more like two, placing me at the 1st of July, Yellow Springs Time.

1996: Summer finally settling in now. The rains that lasted through April and May and the first week of June are finally letting up a little bit. In the woods, everything is fresh and moist. The river is still high but starting to subside. Honewort, fire pink, white violets are common in the undergrowth. Parsnips and goat's beard full bloom along the highways. Catalpas dropped some of their flowers in the thunderstorm this afternoon. Butterflies common finally, fireflies (which first appeared on the 9th) obvious now after dark. The first lilies were late, but appeared with the fireflies. Along the west border of the yard, first bloom of the giant white-flowered hosta.

1999: Maine: Mid-May of Yellow Springs continues. First robin birdsong at 4:00 a.m. (EDT). Flowers seen: Alpine azalea, field sorrel with reddish dock-like flowers, arrow shaped leaves, blue ocean lungwort type of plant growing in rocks along the shore. Wide vistas of orange hawkweeds and golden buttercups.

2000: I got up late, about 6:30, the morning quiet, no chorus, no cardinals.

2001: Last bowl of strawberries from the home garden. This morning in the sun, dozens of red admiral and question mark butterflies clustered against the far west garden. Several buckeyes and fritillaries too. This afternoon, soft pale lizard’s tail flowers opened. Tonight, the first fireflies.

2002: Very last strawberry. Very first mallow.

2003: Larkspur opened yesterday in the north garden. By 7:00 a.m. (EDT) this morning, only a few grackles calling in the back yard. First two fireflies of the year seen tonight about 9:30.

2004: First centipede appears in the bathtub!

2005: First moonbeam coreopsis opens. New day lily, peach color, opens in the northeast garden. Birdsong vibrant and loud at 5:30 a.m. (EDT). Full bloom: great blue hosta, heliopsis, coreopsis, oak-leaf hydrangea, sweet William (declining), penstemon, spirea, privet, candy lilies.

2007: Catbird heard in the back yard before sunrise. Raccoon or skunk dug up five coleus plants from around the redbud tree overnight. Also broke into the garbage can and scattered food around. In the shed, it shredded the thistle seed bag and scattered seeds on the floor.

June 15th
The 166th Day of the Year

Instinctively summer is accepted as the normal condition of the earth, winter as the abnormal. Summer is 'the way it should be.' It is as though our minds subconsciously returned to some tropical beginning, some summer-filled Garden of Eden.

Edwin Way Teale

Sunrise/set: 6:06/9:05 Day's Length: 14 hours 59 minutes
Average High/Low: 82/61 Average Temperature: 71
Record High: 96 - 1897 Record Low: 47 - 1933

Weather
Temperatures remain hot most of the time: four years in ten bring highs in the 90s, five in ten bring 80s. Cool temperatures in the 70s or 60s share the remaining ten percent. The heat may contribute to making today one of the three June days most susceptible to a thunderstorm (the 2nd and the 20th are the other two). Rain falls 55 percent of the time. After the showers, the
sky clears up eight years in ten.

The Weather of the Week Ahead
The likelihood of rain diminishes this week of the year, and the period brings four days which historically are favorable for field work. Chances for completely overcast conditions decline to less than 20 percent. The 16th, 17th, and 18th have a very low incidence of rainfall (just 20 percent chance for showers), and chances on the 21st are only 30 percent. Two days this week are often pretty damp, however: today and 20th have better than a 50 percent chance for thunderstorms.

Temperatures are usually warm, with only 35 percent of the afternoon highs remaining below 80 degrees. Hot 90s occur at least 20 percent of the time. Lows are in the 60s the majority of nights, but 50s and 40s occur up to 40 percent of the time.

Black Raspberry Week
As early summer deepens, the days are the longest of the year, and mulberries and black raspberries are sweetest. Milkweed beetles look for milkweed flowers on the longest days; giant cecropia moths emerge. The first monarch butterfly caterpillars eat the carrot tops. Damselflies and daddy longlegs are everywhere when black raspberries come in. Mosquitoes, chiggers, and ticks have reached their summer strength. Giant black cricket hunters hunt crickets in the garden.

Two out of three parsnips, angelicas, and hemlocks are going to seed. Some multiflora roses and Japanese honeysuckles are dropping petals. But wingstem and tall coneflower stalks are five feet high. Virginia creeper is flowering. Canadian thistles and nodding thistles are at their best. Blackberries have set fruit. The very first trumpet vines sport bright red-orange trumpets, and the first Deptford pink and first great mullein come into bloom.

Orchard grass is brown and old, English rye grass full bloom, exotic bottle grass late bloom, brome grass very late, some timothy still tender. More Asiatic lilies are coming in now, first the orange, then the pink. Yellow primroses, foxglove, pink and yellow achillea, late daisies, purple spiderwort and speedwell shine in the garden. All across the nation’s midsection, there are hedges of white elderberry flowers, roadsides of violet crown vetch, great fields of gold and green wheat.

If you follow the Mississippi Valley south, you will find hemlocks and thistles all gone to seed near St. Louis, teasel twice as tall as it is in Chicago. Sweet clover has almost disappeared by Memphis, and the blackberries are turning a little red. In the Deep South, Queen Anne's lace blooms, wild lettuce and horseweed too, and elderberries set their fruit.

The wheat fields are bare in the Gulf States, the roadsides full of black-eyed Susans, pennywort, thin-leafed mountain mint and Mexican hat. Deep in Central America, the sugar cane crop paces the sweet corn in Iowa.

Natural Calendar
High time for parsnips in the fields is high time for poison hemlock and angelica and meadow goat’s beard. In the shade, poison ivy, fire pink, and honewort are flowering. At the edge of the forest: blue eyed grass, silver yarrow, yellow sedum, bright moneywort, fire pink, daisies, yellow sweet clover, wild roses, wild iris, dock, and smooth brome grass. In the garden: red astilbe, the soft blue veronica, the bright yellow coreopsis, deep purple loosestrife, and the first generation of the floribunda and tea roses.

Daybook
1982: Hail fell today in a storm, some up to an inch in diameter.

1983: First firefly.

1984: At Wilberforce, chicory is finally open. South Glen: Most white waterleaf is suddenly gone. Seed clusters have formed on the Jack-in-the-pulpit, and white violets are disappearing. First moneywort seen, first tall meadow rue. Timothy is sweet and tender. There are bud clusters on the milkweed. Some parsnips have rusted, gone to seed. Geese seen with big fat goslings. Small box turtle on the woods path. Buds on the touch-me-nots. Brown seeds falling from the small flowered crowfoot. Wild ginger still in bloom. Young woodchuck, frightened by my approach, climbed a tree to escape me, hung there above my head like a raccoon.

1986: Red berries on the King Street honeysuckles now.

1987: Very first pokeweed flower clusters take form.

1988: Very last strawberries eaten today, and a dozen black raspberries. First firefly came out tonight, delayed by the drought.

1990: Cherries and mulberries ready for pies.

1993: Most daisies in the gardens of Yellow Springs and most hawthorn flowers are past their prime. The wild thin-leafed daisies in the pastures are still in full bloom. Full bloom of coreopsis throughout town. First carnations open, first chicory and Queen Anne's lace blossoming along the southern highway, first catnip on Dayton Street, first tall blanket flower in the south garden. Yellow tiger swallowtail in the pink sweet Williams. Daisy fleabane under the cherry tree is in full bloom. Peppermint found along the high path at Clifton Gorge, has been out for weeks, beginning to fade. Large patches of fire pink along that walk, and orange poison ivy flowers.

1995: St. Louis to Salina, KS: Heading west towards Columbia, Missouri, the roadside vegetation remains relatively stable, generally “Midwestern” (a week or two ahead of Yellow Springs) with Queen Anne's lace, yellow and white sweet clover, crown vetch, daisy fleabane, yellow and white moth mullein, dogbane, milkweed, chicory, white bindweed in full bloom. Huge compass plant, four to six feet tall, seen near Columbia and beyond. Into Kansas, the landscape changes quickly, the number of trees and clovers dwindling, and the vegetation becoming predominantly grasses. Wheat becomes lighter as we drive west, and crops were still being planted throughout the Plains, some of the latest planting in recent history, I assume.

1998: Queen Anne’s lace opens. Neysa reports tadpoles swimming in the water at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

2002: First yellow day lilies coming in. Big blue hosta blooms. The first pale-leafed Japanese iris and the first lizard’s tail blossoms in the pond.

2003: First Frances Williams hosta, first big blue hosta, first Heliopsis, first red lilies flowered today.

2004: The first purple coneflower is opening in the north garden today. They have been blooming at the Women’s Park for about a week. Mallow now in full bloom, and lilies gathering momentum. Oakleaf hydrangea anchors the northwest corner of the garden with its white flowers. Hollyhocks are out throughout the village. Kusa dogwood flowers disappearing in the park.

2005: Yucca seen in bloom in Centerville, still just budding here in the garden.

2007: Blue jays feeding their young in the back yard today – grackles, sparrows, robins and jays all with fledglings in the second week of June.

Vast overhanging meadow-lands of rain,
And drowsy dawns, and noons when golden grain
Nods in the sun, and lazy truant boys
Drift ever listlessly down the day,
Too full of joy to rest, and dreams to play.

James Whitcomb Riley