Stake young shrubs and trees; wrap young transplants

Rain and wind gusting ... The landscape was transformed. Only a touch of color remained here and there, the hills were austere and dark. Autumn was blown away like a shroud of dust, the earth was uncovered to the sky.

— Harlan Hubbard

The moon, sun and stars

The Goose Gathering Moon, new on the 23rd and reaching powerful perigee, its position closest to Earth, on the 25th, enters its second phase Nov. 30 at 9:37 a.m. Rising in the morning and setting in the evening, this moon passes overhead, its most favorable time for fish and game activity, around the middle of the day.

In the dark, Orion becomes unmistakable now as early winter approaches, and Sirius and Procyon follow him out of the southeast after midnight. Aries is high in the center of the sky this week, a little west of Perseus. And the summer stars have almost disappeared. August’s Vega is setting. Cygnus, the swan of the Northern Cross, and the gauge of autumn’s progress is disappearing south. October’s Pegasus and Andromeda fall away behind it.

Weather trends

Average highs fall 3 degrees this week into the lower 40s, and typical lows decline to the middle 20s. The first December cold front usually arrives between the 1st and the 3rd, bringing a 40% chance for rain or snow on those days. The 4th and 5th are dry two years in three; the 6th, however, usually anticipates the second high pressure system of the month and is wet half the days in my record.

Highs sometimes reach the 60s this week of the year, but only 5% of the time. Odds are far better for chilly afternoons in the 30s and 40s and lows well below freezing. Dec. 1 is usually the brightest day of the week, with a 60% chance for sun; on the other days of this period, odds are better than 50/50 for clouds.

Events in nature

In a moderate autumn, a few snapdragons and yarrows can still be budding. The dead nettle still has blossoms. Basal leaf clusters grow back on carnations, sweet rockets, chickweed, henbit, celandine, garlic mustard, poppies, lamb’s ear and daisies. Until the hardest frost, St. John’s wort, lavender, butterfly bush, euonymus and Japanese honeysuckle keep their leaves. The mint is still fragrant. Parsley and thyme are still green and firm for seasoning.

A secondary rutting period for deer begins near the end of November and lasts until early to mid-december. Early sprouting winter wheat could bring deer to those tender green shoots. Staghorn sumac fruit clusters can also be very attractive to game.

Field and garden

All the major harvest is usually complete; fall seeding should be finished; the garden’s pretty-well picked clean, and the cover crops have sprouted. The Christmas tree harvest has begun, and the last poinsettias have come north.

On the farm, it’s time to plug in the electric bucket heaters and try to keep the water near 50 degrees for pregnant livestock. Maintain good ventilation in the barn, and watch for stress from overcrowding. Keep on the lookout for pneumonia in your animals.

Around the yard, stake young shrubs and trees. Wrap young transplants to protect them against frost cracking and rabbits. Parsley and thyme should be brought inside pots for winter seasonings.

Mind and body

Thanksgiving opens the sixweek holiday season in the United

States, a difficult time for some, a festive family period for others. Adding to the complexity of late November through December, leaf fall is virtually complete, and temperatures, which may have moderated in an “Indian Summer,” become much colder. In most years, clouds become more frequent, and increasing wind speed approaches winter levels.

All these factors mean SAD rises with the moon throughout the period, remaining in the harsh, wintry 90s for several days.

Journal

Now the inventory of the neighborhood year rests on a count of the remaining leaves on trees or plants, the breakdown of the fallen leaves, the subtlety of the last colors, the coming apart of seed heads, the disappearance of berries.

The silver maples and the oaks thin out. Forsythia turns deep red and gold from frost. Poplars shrivel. Most mock orange leaves and most of the lilacs are gone. Sometimes half the ginkgo seeds hang on above the golden skirt of their fallen foliage; often they have all come down.

Late Fall deepens with rust overtaking most of the beech tree on Dayton Street; red and gold are spreading through the pears. Osage fruits are almost all on the ground, stand out chartreuse, at random, in the tangle of the undergrowth.

Cypress trees have thinned, their branches a delicate web against the sky. Pink coralberries glow in the hedges. Bittersweet berries crack and reveal their softer cores. The foliage of black-eyed Susans is gray, flower petals gone, centers so black. Silver olive leaves have fallen.

There are red berries on the flowering crabs, on the dogwoods, and on the hawthorns, on the honeysuckles, on the bayberry, red hips on the roses, bittersweet hulls on the sidewalk, white exteriors of euonymus berries splitting, revealing the orange cores. Stems of salvia have exploded from the cold. Hostas dissolve into the soil.

Garden lettuce, rhubarb and comfrey are prostrate in the cold. Hydrangea and mock orange leaves are curled and blackened. Finches work the sweet gum trees, digging out the seeds from their hollows. The last daddy longlegs huddle together woodpiles and brambles. Late woolly bear caterpillars, most of them dark orange and black, still emerge in the sun. Juncos arrive for winter. In the mornings, robins peeping all around the village. Geese continue to gather at the pond.