Of leaves falling.
Under their loosening bright
Gold, the sycamore limbs
bleach whiter.
- Wendell Berry
Phases of the Thin Time Moon
Nov. 1: The Thin Time Moon is new.
Nov. 9: The moon enters its second quarter.
Nov. 15: The moon is full.
Nov. 22: The moon enters its final quarter.
Weather Trends
Weather history suggests that the cold waves of Late Fall usually cross the Mississippi River on or about Nov. 2, 6, 11, 16, 20, 24 and 28. Snow or rain often occurs prior to the passage of each major front.
This week, highs are usually in the 50′s or 60′s, with the odds for 70′s near one in five. The chances of warmth in the 70′s drop to just five percent on Nov. 4, and odds increase for cold throughout the week ahead. Highs of just in the 30′s or 40′s are relatively rare during the final days of October, but by the 5th of November, they occur 25 percent of the time, and chances rise to over 40 percent by the 10th of the month.
The Natural Calendar
Near midnight, the Pleiades move almost overhead, leading on the Hyades and the red eye of Taurus, Aldebaran. Orion towers in the southeast, followed by Sirius and Procyon. Castor and Pollux, the rulers of January, stand above Orion.
Nov. 3: Daylight Savings time ends
Set your clocks back one hour.
Late Fall, a three-to-four-week transition period of chilly temperatures, gray skies, and killing frosts, usually arrives by today, and tomorrow is the pivotal day for autumn cloud cover to intensify.
The South Taurid shower brings a handful of meteors per hour on the evenings of Nov. 5-6.
The workday begins to shrink more quickly, losing about two minutes every 24 hours: November takes almost an hour from the day’s length along the 40th Parallel.
This is Ecuadorian Independence Day. Consider selling lambs and kids to this market.
In the Field and Garden
In addition, this is a fine time for dividing and transplanting your perennials and bulbs. Put a little fertilizer and/or compost in with everything, and then water generously through the fall. Prepare mulch for November protection of sensitive plants and shrubs.
Wrap new trees with burlap to help them ward off winter winds. Complete fall field and garden tillage before the November rains.
Grazing season draws to a close as the pasture growth slows in the cold. Testing of stored forage soon can pay dividends by helping you prepare balanced winter rations for your flock and herd.
Journal
Drought for almost two months, now rain enough to soften the ground enough for planting bulbs with ease, But I am just sitting and watching the sparrows. They gather in groups of maybe two or three dozen, feed all around the ground below the feeder. Then, a squirrel will run at them or some sound will frighten time, and the whole flock bursts up for safety in the honeysuckle bushes a few feet away,
Th rain has disheveled the garden, All the tall plants have been bent knocked over The cup plants, the tall wild lettuce and the biggen zinnias have collapsed. Now the color of all the foliage seems to have change again. A week ago, everything seemed brighter: deeper greens and reds and oranges and yellow and purples. Did the water wash away their brilliance? On the other hand, this is Oct.1, and the trees have hardly begun to turn in town.
Whoosh! and the sparrows are up into the bushes again. Almost immediately they start back to the ground or to the feeder to eat. Then whoosh again and and again. It is a sport or a game or a survival practice. Nothing really seems to threaten them, but they know more than I know. There are hundreds of them. They are quick and small and watch each other imitating the escape. Then they tease the nonexistent threat, immediately coming back one by one as though they the masters of the undergrowth.
I stay until almost dusk. I am tired of watching them, but they keep practicing, until they stop. They rest hidden in the dense foliage. Tomorrow, I will put more food in the feeder. Then they will test the security one by one then begin again all day.
So sometimes these sparrows seem like cenobitic monks to me. They are disciplined, dressed in conservative brown. They have a communal lifestyle, cleanly choreographed. I especially like their rhythm, identify with their peaceful, regular routine. I am jealous of their society and its simple purpose. I also know they are not always kind to one another, sometimes greedy and even vicious. The more I think about them, the closer I feel to it them, When I prayed, I might say sparrow prayers: plain, sharp, helpless, determined by their social patterns, hungry, greedy, harmless, with a blind, unknowing faith that would teach them everything they needed to know. Would they go to heaven when they died? Of course!
Bill Felker lives with his wife in Yellow Springs. His “Poor Will’s Almanack” airs on his weekly NPR radio segment on WYSO-FM (91.3).
About the Author