Temperatures cool as early fall arrives next week

Everywhere in the countryside there is a glimmer of autumn reds. Hawthorn bushes are laden with crimson berries, while the clusters of black elderberries are surrounded with vinous red leaves. On brambles, the ripening berries are a glossy purple and some of the leaves are scarlet. The lower leaves of docks are also turning bright red.

— Derwent May

The Moon: The Blackberry Jam Moon reaches perigee (its position closest to Earth) on September 7, and then on September 9, it becomes the new Jumping Jumpseed Moon at 1:01 p.m. Rising in the morning, this Moon passes over the Miami Valley in the afternoon and sets in the evening with Venus and Jupiter in the far west.

The Sun: The Sun’s apparent descent continues at the rate of approximately one degree every two days, reaching more than 95 percent of the way to equinox on September 15.

The Planets: Mars in Capricorn and Saturn in Sagittarius move across the southern sky after sundown. The Stars: At bedtime find Perseus rising out of the northeast, the Great Square filling the eastern sky, Cygnus the Swan overhead, Hercules and the Corona Borealis in the west, and the Big Dipper low in the northwest. Taurus and the Pleiades are up by midnight, and they stay in the dark sky until Middle Spring when their disappearance coincides with opening of tulips. At dawn, Orion is almost due south, the Great Square is setting, and Regulus, the planting star of April is climbing in front of the Sun.

The Shooting Stars: No major meteor showers occur this week.

Weather Trends: Early fall arrives in the second week of September. Temperatures, which began to cool slightly at the pivot time of August 10, decline more noticeably. Average highs fall below 80, and normal nighttime lows move below 60 until the second week of June. Chances of highs in the 90s hold at only 10 percent each day this week, the first time that has happened since the end of May. Highs in the cold 60s occur another 10 percent of the time (and there is a the possibility of 50s for the first time since June 4), with 70s and 80s sharing the remaining 80 percent. Frost is rare at this stage of September, but chances of a light freeze increase to 10 percent on September 13 and 14 as the third high pressure system of the month comes through.

The Natural Calendar: Among the many signs of approaching autumn, the maturing of the jumpseed plant is one of the more dependable. When its flowers have turned to brittle seeds, then the last tier of wildflowers starts to open throughout the country. White and violet asters, orange beggar ticks and bur marigolds, late field goldenrod and zigzag goldenrod come into bloom, blending with the last of the purple ironweed, yellow sundrops, blue chicory, golden touch-me-nots, showy coneflowers and great blue lobelias.

Fish and Livestock: Watch for the pasture to shift towards its autumn composition as the number of plants available for browse starts to diminish and the rate of growth begins to slow. Schedule fall pasture improvements. Fish, dieters and game may be hungrier as the Moon passes overhead in the morning, especially when the cool fronts of September 8 and 12 approach (pushing down the barometer).

In the Field and Garden: The dark Moon favors the seeding of winter grains and green manure crops. Test the soil and make corrective lime and fertilizer applications for autumn plantings. A fourth to half of the corn is mature, and about a fourth has been cut for silage. When the corn harvest ends, vaccinate for enterotoxemia the lambs you let run in the cornfields.

Marketing Notes: September 9 – 11: Rosh Hashanah: Offer your honey and apples for festival treats.

September 11 – October 9, 2018: Al Hijira: This feast, the Islamic New Year, will continue for 29 days. It has little religious significance, but like many New Year celebrations, it is a cultural event. A rise in halal sales could be expected during this period.

The Almanack Horoscope: Since the hot weather is on the wane and the skies normally remain summer clear, the incidence of seasonal affective disorder is low this week. Continue to take advantage of rising adrenalin and other hormonal activity that often takes occurs in autumn to accomplish what you put off during the Dog Days of summer. Lunar phase this week complements the seasonal hormonal surge and is favorable for surgery, trips to the dentist and for making difficult decisions.

Journal

Several weeks ago, walking west down my street late in the evening, I could see Venus straight ahead of me, a deep orange marker in the sky in the very last of twilight.

I looked up and around, trying to find the Big Dipper and the Summer Triangle, prominent stars of a July night. I could see Jupiter in the south to my left, but haze or high clouds kept the constellations hidden. The Moon had set an hour or so earlier, and I was alone with the planets.

Not that I was really alone, surrounded by houses, cars going by a few blocks over, but I felt comforted by the presence of Venus and Jupiter, and I wondered why that was.

Had I needed to find my way in a wilderness night, they might have been of some help, but I knew where I was and where I was going, Maybe they were something like lighthouse beacons, I thought, marking safety and home. I was not at sea, or so I believed, but it seemed they offered a kind of comfort of context, as though they were guides or companions in a trackless space or time, as though they promised that some journey or other was at an end.

I really couldn’t understand the source my feelings. They must have come out of my mood on that particular evening, but I can’t remember what the mood was. I only remember that Venus and Jupiter were beside me and in front of me, and that they gave me a meaning and direction that I needed.

Poor Will’s Almanack and Horoscope for 2019 is now available; order on Amazon. com.