May 13th
The 133rd Day of the Year
The shepherd’s swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
Christopher Marlowe
Sunrise/set: 5:22/7:41
Day’s Length: 14 hours 19 minutes
Average High/Low: 71/50
Average Temperature: 60
Record High: 87 – 1896
Record Low: 34 – 1901
Weather
Ten percent of May 13ths rise to the 90s, thirty percent to the 80s, twenty percent to the 70s, thirty percent to the 60s, and ten percent to the 50s. Frost is rare, and this is the last time in May when the chances of rain are only 25 percent. All the remaining days bring at least 30 percent, with some going as high as 50 to 60 percent. That increased frequency of precipitation carries the name of the “Strawberry Rains,” a period during which local strawberries begin to ripen and are especially vulnerable to wet conditions.
Natural Calendar
When Yellow Springs azaleas lose their petals, daisies, clematis, and the first cinquefoil open all the way, the first strawberry ripens, and swallowtail butterflies visit the star of Bethlehem and bleeding hearts. The last quince flowers fall, and lilacs decay. Morel season is over in southern Ohio, but is just beginning in the Upper Midwest at higher elevations and in the far West. The bright yellow arrowleaf balsamroot is flowering in the Rocky Mountains as cottonwoods fill out there. Elk migrate north into higher summer ranges, and cutthroat trout are ready to spawn in mountain streams.
Daybook
1983: First June bug on the front screen. Snowball viburnum continues at full flower. First sweet rockets seen. Dogwoods magnificent. Grass knee high.
1984: First fleabane blooms, buds on the iris.
1986: Snow-on-the-mountain opens in the yard.
1987: Comfrey blooms. Black medic, white and red clover noticed at Wilberforce. Locusts full bloom along Corry Street. Milkweed six to nine inches high. Canopy closing quickly. Chicory getting lanky. Many hemlock budding. Early Summer yellow sweet clover: some tall and budding. Groundsel becoming overgrown in the pastures. Groundhog activity continues high (judging, at least, by the number of road kills).
1990: First poppies and mock orange bloom. Almost all the trillium grandiflorum are gone.
1991: First hemlock is in bloom. Some of the wild cherry trees have completed their flower cycle. The small green ash is full of flowers by my window at Wilberforce. Locust full bloom, the last step before the catalpas blossom and the canopy is filled in. A mother possum and her babies were killed on Wilberforce-Clifton Road last night.
1993: First red pyrethrum is just about fully emerged now. First spiderwort. The Glen canopy is maybe three-fourths full: complete where maples dominate, still delicate and thin where there are more oaks and sycamores.
1995: At the triangle park, small pinecones have fully formed on a few of the spruce. Seed pods on some of the silver maples are turning brown, some falling. At Antioch School, the mountain maples are in full bloom.
1998: To Dayton last night for the symphony, Beethoven’s 9th. The roads were lined with locusts in bloom. When we got home, the first June bug was lying on the porch rug.
1999: Wood hyacinth remains lush. Ten leaves on the water lily. Purple rhododendrons full. Spiderwort opens. Tadpoles gone overnight.
2000: In the city, salsify blooming in the sidewalks, and then out east along the freeway, more, and one parsnip and Canadian thistles open from the summer-like heat of the past week. At the nursery, I saw the first locust flower cluster on one of their small trees planted near the driveway.
2001: Nodding thistles starting to open, first yellow sweet clover seen, parsnips early full along the road to Dayton, first small darner seen at the pond.
2002: First cardinal song at 4:58 a.m.
2003: Home from Madison, Wisconsin: Lily-of-the-valley now mostly gone. Daisies, comfrey, and spiderwort came into early full bloom while we were gone. Mock orange and the rhododendrons are all the way out. More sweet Williams are opening. The first peony is starting to unravel. The first scabiosa, multiflora rose, and snow-on-the-mountain blossomed. Catmint is full bright blue downtown, less bright in our yard. Catalpa leaves are half size. Wood hyacinths are starting to lose their luster.
2004: The first multiflora roses opened last night. Day and night, the air is thick with the sweetness of honeysuckles and mock orange and lilacs.
2005: At South Glen: Sweet rockets, wild phlox, Jack-in-the-pulpit, nodding trillium, white violets, garlic mustard, silver olive, sweet Cicely, one meadow goat’s beard. Black snakeroot and corn salad budded. At home and through most of the village, the late tulips are done blooming. The white late daffodils on the north side of the arbor hold, but they are in decline. Korean lilac is full and fragrant; the purple lilacs along the south border are starting to break down. Mock orange buds are cracking.
2007: First blue flag at the west end of the north garden. Rockets, allium, chives, honeysuckle, Korean lilac, mock orange are in full bloom. Blue wood hyacinths starting to fade. Snow on the mountain flower stalks are tall, a few in bloom. Many rose of Sharon leaves a fourth of their mature size. The high canopy seems complete except for the sycamores, the locusts and Osage.
2008: Spring field crickets singing in the evening. The first of our purple iris has opened. The roadside canopy on the way to Columbus is still pale April green, March in southern Georgia. Redbud trees hold only a dusky remnant of their color now. First patch of daisies seen on the way to Wilmington. First locust flowers seen on the way home from Dayton. Wheat heading. Fleabane blooms in the yard.
2009: Inventory: Indian hyacinths completing their season. Red tulips hold. More rockets unravel. Late sweet Cicely, late garlic mustard. Wild lettuce waist high. Light leafing on the bamboo. Full bloom allium. Full fragrance of the Korean lilac. Full weigela, full buds on wisteria. Mother cardinal left the nest yesterday, no babies seen. Wheat is pale green across the countryside, hemlock heading, lamb’s ear heading, snow on the mountain budding. First orange lily open on Davis Street. Pentstemon heading. White clover an black medic blooming.
2010: Large pink bush roses in bloom in the alley, and Mrs. Timberlake’s peonies are coming in. Locust flowers are still full, but they seem to be darkening with age. Osage budded. Redbud seeds about an inch and a half long, thin. White clover and yellow sweet clover all along the roads, and first red clover noticed. First blue flags in the north garden. Azalea, Korean lilac and viburnum flowers almost all gone, honeysuckle and locusts starting to fall around then neighborhood. Penstemon and pink spirea budding. White bleeding heart opened under the honeysuckle in the back. Full mock orange, full chives, buttercups. The toad is singing in the pond as the temperature rises above 80 degrees and the local weather station announces a tornado warning.
2011: Italy: Riding in the country with Ivano and Neysa to Montefalco winery, then lunch at the Montefalco square. Haying seems complete in the Umbrian countryside, buttercups, hawkweeds and sow thistles fill many pastures. Pie cherries are ripe (almost a month ahead of the average in Yellow Springs). Wheat is tall, headed, a dusky green. Brome and foxtail grass nod in the wind. Thistles are budded but not really open yet. Nettles waist high. Comfrey found in bloom, and many azaleas.
2012: Roses in full bloom throughout Dayton, many stella d’oro lilies are out. Along South College Street in town, the catalpas are maybe a third in bloom, the phase quite early. Above the trellis, pale red-violet clematis flowers opening. All along the freeway, the locusts are finished, their foliage finally filling in. Along High Street, black walnut flower clusters and one small, furry nut fallen to the sidewalk. Comfrey is still in full bloom in the Phillips Street alley, as are the poppies.
2013: Phil Hawkey called: He had seen his first male tiger swallowtail at 7:10 in the evening. It was all bright and new, lying in the grass, he said, like it was in “HD.”
2015: The first pale violet spiderwort opened overnight in the northwest garden, and the last Indian hyacinth went to seed in the circle garden (but wood hyacinths and allium holding). First white-spotted skipper seen near the white-flowered viburnum. Throughout the village, locusts are in full bloom. Running several miles in John Bryan Park around 4:30 in the afternoon, I saw bluettes, May apples, Solomon’s plume, ragwort (a few with puffy seed heads), wild phlox, spring beauties, dwarf purple larkspur.
2016: Snowball viburnum: white petals falling into the bed of spent tulips, into the tall ferns and hostas. Deep red-violet redbud leaves match the red-violet of the shed. Algae gradually taking over the pond. No buds on the Japanese water iris this year, the first time ever, I believe. Into John Bryan Park with Jill: Lush foliage, canopy half filled, pileated calling, river high and fast, wood nettle thigh-high, late ragwort, many wild phlox, rockets, Solomon’s plume, flowering May apples and tall white violets, fleabane, some swamp buttercups in the muck, Jack-in-the-pulpit being overgrown with grasses, a couple of small dark-purple larkspur, chickweed on the slopes collapsed and yellowing, catchweed lanky and still in bloom, black raspberries flowering, the air heavy with the smell of honeysuckles.
2017: I was having lunch on the back porch when I saw the first red admiral butterfly, then a Baltimore oriole, and then a catbird. In the honeysuckles, robins are guiding their young with peeps and chirps. At the shop downtown, the Kentucky coffee tree is in full flower. A dreamy, fragrant late afternoon in the Covered Bridge habitat: sweet rockets, corn salad, catchweed, a wild multiflora rose bush starting, wild geraniums full. Late garlic mustard, sweet Cicely, ragwort, a few phlox and white violets, parsnips large and budded, many bright buttercups, wood nettle knee high, sycamores only about a third leafed, tulip tree blossoms on the ground, the high canopy much thinner than the maple canopy of the village. Another red admiral butterfly seen, visiting beside us on the riverbank. The water was calm and silky near dusk, sun all over the far shore, the honeysuckles, all in flower, glowing. Coming home, I found a small grass snake had come in the back door that I had left open; he disappeared into the storage cabinets.
2018: Tat saw a Baltimore oriole in the back yard this afternoon. I noticed several weigelas open around town and mock orange buds on the old bush near the shed. Scott Stolsenberg photographed a rare King Rail at the Glass Farm pond.
2019: Pale sugar maple seeds cover Jill’s driveway and the sidewalk down High Street.
2020: Finally a mild afternoon with sun and in the 60s, only the second nice day this month. Ranger and I went walking at the Old Mill path, found first blooms on catchweed and sweet rockets, lush full bloom of wild geraniums, groundsel, sweet Cicely, white violets and garlic mustard, many wild phlox and ragwort, some swamp buttercups. May apples, mock orange and wild raspberries were budded. I saw two red admiral butterflies and two cabbage whites. At home, lilacs hold, but their best is over. Hyacinths are still at their peak, and the allium is trying to open (even though Liz’s allium has been completely open for a week).
One of the best things for me when I went to the hermitage was being attentive to the times of the day: when the birds began to sing, and the deer came out of the morning fog, and the sun came up….
Thomas Merton