The Old Farmer's Almanac 2015 (13 page)

December Hath 31 Days

There he stands in the foul weather,
The foolish, fond Old Year.

–
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Farmer’s Calendar

The year went by in the blink of an eye. Soon, the holidays will be over and a new year will be upon us. Now is the time to look back and reflect on the past months to see what we have accomplished—or tried to accomplish. There are some who say, “Take off the rearview mirror and drive on,” but reviewing the past is a valuable learning tool that keeps us from repeating mistakes and reminds us of the things that worked, helping us to make better choices now and in the future.

Journaling is a wonderful way to keep track of the past. Write in your journal every day, even if it is just a sentence, and date your entries. This will allow you to revisit the progression of your thoughts and actions over the past year.

A journal is a practical way of keeping track of things like weather events and planting dates, but, more important, it allows you to think about your life. Did you do something that you came to regret? What things did you do that made you proud? Could you have done something differently that may have resulted in a different outcome? Do you have any habits or behaviors that you’d like to improve? In what ways have you become a better person?

Moving forward into the new year should be easier if we remember to keep the rearview mirror in adjustment.

The First Month

SKY WATCH
Earth reaches perihelion, its annual point closest to the Sun, on the 4th. All of the planets are visible as the year begins. The innermost duo—Mercury and Venus—has a lovely tight conjunction from the 7th to the 12th, standing 10 degrees high half an hour after sunset, in the southwest. Dim Mars hovers above them, in Aquarius. Saturn appears before dawn, in the east, as it crosses Libra into Scorpius. It hovers next to the waning crescent Moon on the 16th. The Moon forms a close triangle with Venus and Mercury on the 21st and meets Mars and Neptune the next night. Brilliant Jupiter, in Leo, rises by 6:00 P.M. at month’s end.

January Hath 31 Days

Just listen to the merry New Year’s bells!

All hearts rejoice and catch the cheerful tone.

–
M. A. Baines

Farmer’s Calendar

For the past several days, the temperature has been at or below zero at 5:00
A.M.
, when we take the dogs out for their walk. We rarely see or hear traffic at this hour. No jets fly overhead, and no one else is walking. The absence of such ordinary sounds allows us to hear noises that we’d miss in the daylight.

To the Cree of Canada, now was the time of the Moon of Popping Trees. As the water in trees’ sap freezes and expands, the crack of the wood sounds like cap pistols or firecrackers. It is not loud, but it startles us as we walk up the dark road.

Passing the frozen pond, we occasionally hear a louder, deeper boom as its frozen water expands, too. In 1795, Charles Hutton, a Fellow of Britain’s Royal Society, wrote of “sudden cracks or rifts in the ice of the lakes of Sweden, 9 or 10 feet deep, and many leagues long; the rupture being made with a noise not less loud than if many guns were discharged together.”

The strangest sound always comes from exactly the same place in the woods, but only in the very early morning and only on the coldest days of the year. The first time we heard it, it sounded like the barking of a seal, so every time we hear it now, we say, “There’s the seal.” It’s just two tree limbs rubbing against each other. We hope.

The Second Month

SKY WATCH
Venus appears higher up each evening and stands next to Neptune on the 1st. Jupiter, retrograding into Cancer, has its opposition on the 6th; it is then at its closest, biggest, and brightest of the year and is out all night long. Dazzling Venus hovers very close to faint orange Mars from the 19th to the 21 st, low in the southwest at nightfall. On the 20th, the crescent Moon joins this conjunction—a don’t-miss event 18 degrees high in deepening dusk. Binoculars will reveal green Uranus right next to the crescent Moon on the 21st. Meanwhile, in the predawn eastern sky, Saturn in Scorpius is now high enough for telescopic observation.

February Hath 28 Days

Then come the wild weather—come sleet or come snow,

We will stand by each other, however it blow.

–
H. W. Longfellow

Tradition wears a snowy beard,

Romance is always young.

–
John Greenleaf Whittier

Farmer’s Calendar

There’s a basswood on our road that looks like someone has tried to make it into a cribbage board. All around its trunk, and as far up as I can see, there are rows of holes, maybe an eighth of an inch in diameter. Lots of holes: I counted 17 in one 6-inch row.

These are the work of the yellow-bellied sapsucker, which has been tapping trees for a lot longer than people have. It possesses one of the worst names in ornithology—three insults in two words, implying cowardice, stupidity, and gullibility. It’s misleading, too. Granted, the bird does suck sap, but there’s little yellow on its belly. The bright red patch on the male’s head is what stands out. Why not “red-capped sapsucker”?

Its Latin name, Sphyrapicus, is more dignified. Sphyra means hammer, and the bird is, indeed, fond of hammering on metal surfaces such as road signs, chimney flashing, and mailboxes at dawn, a habit that does not endear it to human neighbors.

In Roman mythology, Picus was a mortal man who loved Pomona, a goddess of the orchards. He made the mistake of spurning the affections of the witch Circe, who was famous for turning men into swine, so she changed him into a woodpecker. What a sap.

The Third Month

SKY WATCH
The Moon meets Jupiter on the 2nd. Venus stands very near Uranus on the 4th, with Mars below them, in Pisces. Orange Mars has a close conjunction with green Uranus on the 11th, with dazzling Venus above; use binoculars. Saturn in Scorpius, rises after midnight in midmonth. The 20th brings the vernal equinox at 6:45 P.M. and a total solar eclipse over the Faroe Islands, off Scotland; the path of totality then marches directly to—and stops at—the North Pole. The crescent Moon meets Mars on the 21st and passes to the left of Venus on the 22nd. Mars vanishes in the Sun’s glare at month’s end. Jupiter hovers near the Moon on the 29th.