April 20th
The 110th Day of the Year
The wind blows sweet from the west
through Jupiter, locking away the winter,
thinning the gray clouds now
that the sun alights on Taurus.
Carmina Burana:
(bf)
Sunrise/set: 5:51/7:18
Day’s Length: 13 hours 27 minutes
Average High/Low: 64/42
Average Temperature: 53
Record High: 85 – 1915
Record Low: 21 – 1897
Weather
Chances of a high in the 80s surge to a full 20 percent today, the first time all spring that they have been so good. Seventies come 15 percent of the time, 60s thirty-five percent, 50s twenty percent, 40s ten percent. The sun shines seven days out of ten; rain falls three in ten. After the 20th, the steady advance of the year’s cold waves slows, and relatively long periods of stable, mild weather encourage the advent of full spring growth. High temperatures almost always reach 70 at least once or twice in a week. Spring rains often diminish, their frequency dropping at least ten percent from last week. From now on, a cold day in the 30s is virtually out of the question. Snow falls just once or twice in a century. Frost, however, can still be expected two or three mornings out of seven.
Natural Calendar
The sluggish nature of winter, its interminable cold and gray skies, its sameness that lasts from the beginning of December through the middle of February, reflects the slow movement of the sun between October’s Cross Quarter Day (the 24th) and February’s Cross Quarter Day (the 18th).
For more than four months, the sun lies at its lowest position in the sky. For more than a hundred days, nothing seems to change. By the 20th of April, however, the increased acceleration of the year becomes apparent. A season is always the sum of its parts. The pieces of Early Spring are few and subtle, but Middle Spring, reaching its zenith this week, leaves little to the imagination. The meager inventories of change that characterized equinox quickly fill with new details each day. Trees leaf and flowers bloom, unmistakable, their numbers catching the eye of almost everyone.
All the habitats, from rich talus slopes to alleyways, reveal the prints of change. The first leaf is out on the lizard’s tail. The first wild phlox has bloomed, the first ragwort, the first wild geranium, the first trillium grandiflorum. Honeybees find the peach and crab apple flowers. The cabbage butterflies are spiraling, mating. Pussy willows and forsythia are leafing. Strawberry plants have buds, quince is budding, winter cress is budding. The days finally grow warm.
The earth seems to spin faster now, time ceding to the eye of the spectator. The days suddenly stretch out to their summer length. The floral and faunal fragments multiply, literally filling in the space of Earth with tangible, visible clockwork, the months of waiting through winter and Early Spring repaid beyond counting.
The Sun
Cross-Quarter Day, the day on which the sun reaches halfway to solstice, occurs at the end of April’s third week. The sun enters the sign of Taurus at the same time.
Daybook
1982: First strawberries flower, periwinkle full bloom.
1983: A few remnants of Early Spring are holding on: a handful of bloodroot and twinleaf. Violets are strong, along with spring beauty, toad trillium, toothwort, violet cress, periwinkle, henbit, purple deadnettle. Flowering trees are at their peak in town. Dandelions full bloom.
1985: An eight-day heat wave has turned the town green. Celandine is blooming, and garlic mustard. First fleabane bud, first peony bud found. Mulberry leafing. The first lilacs are out.
1986: Most cherry blossoms fell in the wind today – they usually last about ten days; the petals were also dropping from the pears downtown.
1987: Mrs. Bletzinger reports: “My pond is alive!” She tells me she can’t sleep at night for all the carp jumping and the frogs croaking. Frog eggs all over in the water, she says. At Wilberforce, some maples almost solid green. Ginkgoes coming out too, and sweet gum pacing its development. Crab apples in the village come into full bloom as the pears downtown leaf out through their blossoms. Most of the garlic mustard is budding. Early meadow rue blooms. Asparagus about three inches in the garden, Japanese knotweed a foot and a half tall.
1988: Japanese knotweed killed back by heavy frost. Early bloom time for winter cress.
1989: Cross-quarter Day measurements of the sun: sunrise at a 75 degree azimuth from the front porch, about east northeast (it was 90 degrees on March 17th). Sunset is at 285 degrees, west northwest (it was 270 degrees March 17th).
1990: Grape hyacinths fading, with the daffodils and tulips. Some windflowers and scilla keep their color. First question mark butterfly seen today. Crab apples flower a little more at Wilberforce, but still hold back some. Viburnum flower clusters are two inches wide.
1993: Deep warm wind this morning, moaning in the pale green trees, birds silent. Then it lets up a little, and the cardinals sing. The first Bradford pears on Xenia Avenue opened this afternoon. The redbud at the west entry to the Glen is getting ready to bloom. Pink magnolias still full bloom throughout the county.
1995: Along Grinnell, down to the creek: Buckeyes are budding now, and garlic mustard has buds, too. Ginger is up. Violet cress flowers have withered. Swamp buttercups are blooming. First Jacob’s ladder open, first yellow violet seen. The first trout lilies open shyly, protected by sepals, flowers bowing to the ground. Chickweed is getting lanky in its late prime. Bloodroot gone here. Several new shrubs are open, a snowball viburnum, and one with clusters of fine, white, five-petaled flowers, the bridal wreath. The small cream-colored dogwoods are open. The first purple lilacs have opened.
1998: The first batch of toads has hatched in the pond. The other string of eggs is not elongated yet.
1999: First toad of the year sings in the pond at 8:50 p.m.
2000: Cascades: Trillium grandiflorum, miterwort in full bloom. Early Jack-in-the-pulpit, early garlic mustard, and first columbines, wild geraniums and wood betony. A patch of yellow trout lilies. American colombo sending up first stalks about two feet. Toad trillium old. Ragwort early, wild phlox common. Early meadow rue and the small anemones, a few hepatica and cut-leafed toothwort still in bloom, a last few Dutchman’s britches.
2003: Cardinal sang at 5:20 a.m. (like yesterday morning – and at about the same time as in the third week of August). At the Covered Bridge, buckeyes are in bloom. Bluebells, Jacob’s ladder, violets, and phlox make pale purple the dominant forest floor color. Around them in a tangle lie all the flowers of the mouse-ear chickweed. Sedum is budding. A few white wild hyacinths (Camassia scilloides) blooming at the far end of the woods; I saw some along Dayton Street yesterday. Dandelions cover the green on Corey Street.
2004: Mrs. Lawson’s yellow tulips were open this morning when I went by her yard with Bella. In the pond, the leaves of the water lily have almost reached the surface. By afternoon, lilacs – both the violet and the white – were opening. In the north garden, the first cressleaf groundsel and garlic mustard were flowering. In the east garden, the first fritillary was blossoming. All over town, dogwoods are coming in as crabapples reach full bloom. Along the street, Japanese knotweed is almost chest high. Now the bamboo is sprouting out in the lawn.
2006: At North Glen along the high path, the bluebells and spring beauties are in full bloom, but most Dutchman’s britches and toothwort have faded. Redbuds at the entrance to the park are completely open. The first lilacs open in unison throughout the village.
2007: Early dogwoods are open at Antioch and along Elm Street. Tulips and dandelions open throughout town. Casey told me that his white lilacs, like mine, seemed ready to bloom. Also, his red buckeye apparently did not get damaged by the freeze. The library weigela is in full bloom today, but Mateo’s hasn’t started yet. This afternoon, Jeanie and I drove down to Chillicothe and Portsmouth, then back through Ripley and then north again. Approaching Portsmouth, spring returned – the frost had not killed the flowering trees or the leaves. We saw a few redbuds, many dogwoods, purple lilacs and crab apples in bloom. There were fields of tall butterweed (Packera globella), and the wheat fields were bright April green, the brightest I’ve seen this spring. Creeping phlox was common. Dandelions were still in full bloom, but a few places along the river they had gone to seed. In the Glen, the high tree line is still brown; along the Ohio, the pale green is spreading through the hills.
2008: Dandelions are coming in now throughout town, an early phase to the peak. Some hosta leaves are unraveling. Monarda is about an inch tall, a few garlic mustard plants heading in the strawberry bed. Rhubarb almost a foot tall. Summer phlox bushy and six inches. Primroses under Janet’s redbud reaching full bloom. Viburnum leaves an inch long, hobblebush leaves up to two. Red quince full flower, honeysuckles budded at the same time as crabapples. Sparrows and starlings with nesting materials. Robins singing at dusk.
2009: The serviceberry flowers turned brown last night. Bleeding heart hearts are forming in our front garden, and allium buds have appeared. The carrot seeds finally sprouted: the salad garden is taking place. Rhubarb is big enough for pie. No peach flowers this year, and many crab apples show no buds. Peonies, however, still red, have started to form their buds. Redbuds are increasingly pink in early bloom. The east dooryard garden is almost solid green now, the ground covered with lanky snowdrop and crocus foliage, hosta leaves filling in around them. Some of our ferns are over a foot tall. Many maples have large seeds now, some red like the maples that lined the highways in Louisiana two months ago. Tat says daffodils are blooming now in Madison. Robins were strong at 5:00 a.m., and a cardinal sang at 5:15. I heard a screech owl in back for the first time this year. Along the way to Wilmington, most pear trees have lost their petals; in Yellow Springs, petal fall has begun. This evening, sun and rain, wind and dark clouds. I cut a little wood in the back and worked at katas before the storm hit.
2010: Into North Glen with Jeff: Morning with sun and mild 50s: The woods was full of anemone, trillium grandiflorum, bellwort, garlic mustard, Solomon’s plume and seal, meadow rue, Jack-in-the-pulpit, late miterwort, wild phlox, wild geranium, small flowered buttercup. One golden Alexander and a few wood betony open.
2011: Overnight in all the rain, Don’s cherry tree came into bloom. In the circle garden and in Liz’s, the Indian hyacinths are budding. Some white lilacs pushing out at Don’s, a pink snowball hydrangea open on Stafford Street. Maple seeds coming down in the wind. The backyard redbuds are in early bloom now, and one apple tree along Dayton Street is beginning to open, more apples seen in Fairborn. Pears quickly losing their petals. The song sparrow, the red-bellied woodpecker and lots of grackles calling this morning. Black walnut buds huge and round, tree-of-heaven buds starting to push out, pubescent, some small leaves appearing on the rose of Sharon. One dogwood coming in. House sparrows mating high on the gutters along Limestone
2012: White moths at the porch light this morning – the first time I’ve noticed them this year. Earlier in the spring, flat, dappled moths came to the light. This afternoon, the first yellow tiger swallowtail seen, and a polygonia. I found a toad that had gotten into the new pond and died because it apparently couldn’t get out. Zinnias seeded in the east garden. All but a handful of the small late daffodils, and just a couple of tulips still hold on.
2013: Cold throughout the morning, but finally sunny and moderate in the upper 40s by mid afternoon: Some weeding and transplanting in the north gardens, weeds moving in, some north ferns up a foot or so, leaf size expanding on all the hydrangeas so quickly. At the Covered Bridge, the river high and brown and fast, and the usual litany: bluebells, cowslip, very late toothwort, one lesser celandine, chickweed in bloom and catchweed (not blooming) rising across the forest floor, Jacob’s ladder with very early flowers, toad trillium, spring beauties, wild phlox, crowfoot, swamp buttercups, budded ragwort, skunk cabbage with full-size leaves – fat and long, one bloodroot leaf still. Along Corey Street, a dogwood seen in bloom, and one apple is starting in the triangle park. Here on High Street, the maples in front of Lil’s house, the Danielsons’ and Mrs. Timberlake’s houses are all setting seeds. Rachel’s ginkgo has half-inch leaves now. Peggy’s virgin’s bower is coming on at about the same rate as the lace vine on my porch. In front of Moya’s house, the first rose of Sharon leaves are starting to show. From the San Francisco area, Paul W. Rhea wrote: “Recently took a splendid seven-mile ramble in Henry Coe SP, where emerging oak leaves glowed lime green against a cobalt sky. At one point, we beheld a patch of blue Brodeia with literally dozens of spangled butterflies dancing overhead. Truly magical and memorable.”
2014: This Easter Sunday morning, Moya announced over her south fence that she had found a praying mantis ootheca (egg sack) in her spirea bush, the same place she had found one last year. That year, Rick found the mantises emerging on May 5, and Moya’s ootheca gave birth on May 25.
2015: The Zelcova by the post office fully green with thin and delicate adolescent leaves. Don’s serviceberry trees: flowers going to berries; his pie cherry loaded with blossoms.
2016: Now hyacinth season creeps up to replace the daffodils in the circle garden. Jill says the lilacs in Delaware, Ohio, are in full bloom, just starting here. Blueberry bushes leafing ahead of the beginning river birch branches, wild strawberry yellow found in the lawn, the earliest star of Bethlehem, the first budding of the tall alliums, now bamboo surging up to almost two feet and fat. The pink quince tree is in full bloom, most likely came into flower while I was gone last week. At the Indian Mound near Cedarville, twinleaf found still in bloom, skunk cabbage giant leaves, cowslip, tall swamp buttercups – very prominent in one bog, ragwort and cressleaf groundsel, bluebells, wild phlox, garlic mustard all in flower, one yellow tiger swallowtail seen.
And Peter and Mary Sue sent pictures of three Great White Egrets in the sycamores near Ellis Pond – the appearance this week of April fitting with the migration dates in my references, but the sightings are quite rare in the area. Mary Sue wrote a few days later: “For at least 3 or 5 years, give or take a year or two, about this time we see one passing through. Never for more than a day or two. It is possible they’ve done this longer and we just hadn’t noticed, but, we’ve been in this location about 16 years and I’m always glued to the scene across the street, but I only started a bird journal in 2012 so other sightings are possible, and who knows what we miss. My notes recorded this: In 2014 on April 24 one large white egret and one on August 15 same year. In 2015 on April 12 one large white egret. Then this year April 20, the sighting of three. Sometimes we see a few small white cattle egret but I haven’t any notes on them.”
2017: From Vilaserio to Casa Pepa in Santa Marina, Spain. Walking through major agricultural lands, many hay fields cut, harvest lined up row after row; large tractors and plows working deep rich brown soil; people out in their gardens planting. Along the roads, the canopy thins, the result perhaps of elevation – well above Santiago – and well north of Madrid.
At the pension in Santa Marina, an assortment of the vegetation of previous days, dandelion seeded, some violets, much celandine, white and pink clover, the first rare tall red tropical clover (like in southern Georgia), dock, lamium, large periwinkle, tall mallow in flower, sow thistles, brome, plantain, tall flowered plantain, borage, lanky chickweed, bladderwort, hawkweed, catkins all about, many from what appear to be silver olive bushes, the plants I thought were Angelica or cow parsnip are really, I believe, very tall poison hemlock, an idyllic stream filled with ferns and hemlock, water striders hunting the slowly spinning surface. As I walk, I reflect how in all of this I often confuse the timekeeper markers with time itself, spring with its pieces, the sum with its parts.
2019: Don’s pie cherry full bloom. My sweet cherry late bloom. Oakleaf hydrangea leaves three inches. Jill’s large-flowered celandine has been in bloom several days. Creeping phlox lush and spreading in front of a Dayton Street home. White alliums in flower along North High Street. Zelcovas downtown fully covered with immature, delicate, fringe-like leaves. Rose of Sharon buds start to unravel at Moya’s. At the arboretum near Ellis Pond, pink magnolias keep their petals, the redbuds glow, and the small-flowered dogwoods have green-white blossoms. Running along the soggy cornfields, I watched robins fly about. From Madison, Wisconsin, Maggie reports fields of scilla, some early daffodils, new forsythia, Lenten roses, several Polygonia butterflies and a red admiral, all this placing Madison about two weeks behind Yellow Springs. In southern Tennessee, tulips are gone already, according to Elaine.
2020: Jill’s lilac is open, and the inventory of the town is not so different from the inventories of the past four decades.
God Almighty first planted a garden; and, indeed it is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man.
Francis Bacon