May 6th 
The 126th Day of the Year
Out of its little hill faithfully rise
the potatoes’ dark green leaves,
out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk,
the lilacs bloom in the dooryards.
Walt Whitman
Sunrise/set: 5:30/7:34
Day’s Length: 14 hours 4 minutes
Average High/Low: 69/48
Average Temperature: 58
Record High: 89 – 1949
Record Low: 31 – 1968
Weather
Suddenly the chances of clear to partly cloudy skies jump from the 55 percent of the last three days all the way to 90 percent. That makes May 6th one of the two sunniest days in May (the 14th is the other day). With all the blue sky, chances of 80s are 15 percent, of 70s forty percent, and of 60s twenty-five percent, leaving only 15 percent for cooler 50s and five percent for 40s.. And from today forward, the chances of a day above 70 degrees are better than 50/50 for the first time since the year began. Thunderstorms often occur with the increasing likelihood of heat. Despite the fact that the skies are rarely totally overcast, showers pass through on this date one year in three.
Natural Calendar
Zeitgebers of this week include the budding of thistles and privet bushes, the reddening of strawberries, the forming of buckeye fruits, the opening of the first peonies, and the full bloom of buckeyes, allium, early yellow roses, meadow goat’s beard, sweet rocket, poppies, iris, early mock orange, Korean lilac, red-horse chestnut, wild cherry and locust trees.
Fledgling grackles, sparrows and cardinals are leaving their nests and are begging for food. As mating comes to an end, morning birdsong becomes less insistent. Goslings and ducklings swim the rivers. Lake carp and pond koi are mating. Insects increase in number. The high canopy suddenly fills in. Flowering locust trees join mock orange, honeysuckle and late lilacs to create the most fragrant time of the year throughout the central portion of the United States.
The Stars
At midnight, the Northern Cross is well up over the eastern horizon. That is another of the major signs of summer, and an indication that frost time is virtually over below the 40th Parallel. Another sign: red Antares of Scorpius is almost due south.
Daybook
1982: First June bug at the front door, 7:35 p.m.
1984: Buds on the honeysuckle and mock orange. Osage and locust just starting. Garlic mustard getting ready to bloom. White and lavender lilacs starting to emerge. Tulips holding. Catalpa
leaves coming.
1985: At South Glen, May apples are in full bloom, and the canopy is almost complete. Garlic mustard chest high, late bloom. Blue cohosh is done as well as the meadow rue. It’s Early Summer.
1987: As the sweet rockets come in, corn is just sprouting, and the fields of dandelions have gone to seed. Wood sorrel noticed flowering. Sweet Cicely in early bloom. Wood nettle is almost a foot tall. Flies are pesky for the first time. Goslings seen at the river, six babies feeding with two adults on the shore full of grass and violets and garlic mustard. One parent in front, the other behind. At Sycamore Hole, shiner minnows play in the water, full mating time.
1988: First bridal wreath, first snowball, first star of Bethlehem.
1989: Pink quince at southeast corner of the house is in full bloom today. Pale trumpet creeper foliage is out, an inch or two long. Sycamore foliage pacing the white mulberry’s.
1990: Half the iris in the yard are budding. Purple deadnettle is yellowing, and dandelions are lanky and old. Only a few red quince remain.
1991: First daisy and pyrethrums unravel in the south garden. In the village, a whole patch of daisies seen. First June bug seen at Wilberforce.
1992: Pears all leafed, canopy closing. Star of Bethlehem and large-flowered anemone full bloom in the south garden.
1993: Virginia creeper leaves have developed to half size in the past week. Ginkgoes and ash a third or more leafed, sweet gum starting to leaf, oaks full bloom, some leafing. Fields of dandelions to seed, other pastures full of bright tall winter cress. In the pussy willow garden, the bugle (Adjuga reptans) has opened all at once, and the first lily-of-the-valley is blooming. One fleabane is tall with nodding flower heads. Dwarf iris full bloom in the east garden. First azalea opening. Joel came to school today with the first tick.
1995: At the triangle garden, oak leaves have come out, maybe an inch long. Lindens are filling in now, some leaves an inch long, others two. Petal fall is accelerating, maybe half the petals have come down. Purple lilacs and redbuds still strong. The very first sweet William found at the west end of the north garden. Tulip time is over except for the new appledorns by the mock orange. Blue wood hyacinths have budded and some are open in the south garden. The pink quince has come into full bloom over the past two or three days. The gold buttercups are all the way open, and the red pyrethrums have large buds. Maples fill out quickly. The north, west and east sides of the yard are pretty well filled in with honeysuckle; only the south side is still bare, waiting for the mulberries and the rose of Sharon to come out.
1998: Now the rhododendrons flower and wild cherry comes into full bloom, And poppies throughout town. The tenth leaf of the water lily plant has reached the surface.
1999: Liz calls: morel mushrooms at South Glen, big batch. Today at dusk, long sing-song of a robin. It’s summer at Jacoby swamp now, the sweet Cicely has been full for days, the June growth coming up, the nettles and jewelweed through chickweed and catchweed. The east garden is perfect in foliage of hostas and bleeding hearts, ferns and lungworts. Now honeysuckles form a complete shrub barrier around the yard, a barrier that will last through November. Now the red mulberry is leafing, the sweet rockets opening, the iris coming in around town, and the poppies, the late white and violet hyacinths, and the tall cressleaf groundsel.
2000: First dragonfly of the year visited the pond as I cooked hotdogs on the grill.
2001: First red pyrethrum unfolded in the south garden by four o’clock this afternoon. Dutch iris budding in the north garden.
2003: Buds appear on the poppy in the south garden. The very first rhododendron is unraveling. Wild cherry seen in full bloom yesterday along Grinnell Road. The hawthorn at the triangle park is in bloom. Spruce trees there have small one-inch cones. First yellow wood sorrel flower noticed in the strawberry bed. In the north garden, catmint has opened; I can even smell its flowers when I stand away from it.
2005: At South Glen with Mike: Trillium grandiflorum, wild phlox, white and purple violets, spring cress, wild geranium, ragwort, large toad trilliums, buckeyes all in bloom. Chickweed, still in bloom, yellows across the woods floor. Grasses are above my boots now but not high enough to get the calves of my pants legs wet. The far tree line is still mostly brown, even though in town, the maples and pears are almost all leafed out. In the east garden, wild geraniums bloomed a day or two ago. The red azalea is approaching full bloom. In the afternoon, more termites swarmed in the greenhouse.
2006: Bob Parker came to the house the other day. He told me about a pond apple tree, apparently the only one in town, blooming on the north side of Limestone Street. A native of the tropics, this small tree has survived for years in Yellow Springs apparently without ill effects. Its petals resemble those of the pink quince, also in bloom at the beginning of May, and they offer an exotic complement to the end of late-spring fruit tree flowering season.
The center of Late Spring is already closing the canopy over the pond apple. Sycamores, Osage, cottonwoods and oaks are leafing out, and white mulberries and buckeyes blossom. Along the sidewalks, purple iris, orange poppies, sweet William, and florescence of bridal wreath spirea and snowball viburnum have appeared. The delicate Korean lilacs join the fading standard lilac varieties, and bright rhododendrons replace the azaleas.
Serviceberry trees along Dayton Street have small green berries. In the alleys, scarlet pimpernel comes in beside the thyme-leafed speedwell. Daisies unravel, and the bells of the lily-of-the-valley emerge from their green sheaths. Wood hyacinths and star of Bethlehem are at their best.
In Clifton Gorge, columbine is open on the cliffs, and throughout the North Glen, Solomon’s seal, false Solomon’s seal, bellwort, wild phlox, trillium grandiflorum, wild geraniums, golden Alexander, wood betony, early meadow rue, swamp buttercups, ginger, Jacob’s ladder, water cress and golden seal are blooming. White garlic mustard and sweet Cicely still dominate the deep woods of South Glen; violet sweet rockets increase throughout the fields and glades.
2007: First white-spotted skipper seen this morning.
2008: Petal fall accelerating on the crab apples in the park. The first yellow cabbage butterfly seen in the north garden. In the pond, the new tadpoles are still tame, huddled together eating algae. Ranunculus have started to open along the east side of the old house. The very first Korean lilac buds are opening, the first sweet Cicely. Iris seen full bloom in Wilmington this evening. Cowslips still bloom beside the dominant ragwort across from the Covered Bridge. Two blue robin’s eggs seen on the sidewalk as we walked downtown. One winged termite caught in the greenhouse at about 11:00 p.m., attracted to the light by Jeanie’s chair.
2009: Faint robinsong at 4:00 a.m. Doves come in at 4:55, cardinals at 5:00. No blue jay heard this morning, and the intensity of all the birdsong seems to be gone. Grackles in the alley this morning, but none of the mating excitement. Honeysuckle bushes have finally started to bloom at the same time as sweet Cicely.
From my notes, I can see that 2008 is finally catching up with 2009 – or else this year is slowing down. In Wilmington, the first peonies seen. Silver olive flowers are out. Dwarf larkspur (like the larkspur seen in Troy a few days ago) and white pussytoes on display at the college plant table. This evening, robins and grackles heard as I walked Bella around 7:30. Screech owl in the back lot around 7:15.
2010: Robins, grackles, cardinals and doves loud before dawn. Five blue jays in the yard this morning, the parents screaming and bobbing. A sparrow killed by the cats before breakfast. The first violet iris opened in the yard by 10:00 a.m., the first sweet Williams followed. The deep purple clematis on the trellis and the east fence started to bloom. The Dutch iris are fully budded. Peggy’s daisies are opening. The north-side locusts suddenly full.
2011: Robins, cardinals, song sparrows, doves, blue jay – all heard this morning around 9:00. In the alley, huge drooping buds of the poppies, early sweet Cicely. At the circle garden, Indian hyacinths are in full bloom, wood hyacinths coming in. The azalea in the east garden is completely open, and the red crab apple is losing a few petals. Along High Street, bridal wreath spirea is beginning to flower. Robin vespers this evening, and the call of a red-bellied woodpecker. Young raccoons with their mother reported a few days ago. In spite of all the rain of the past two weeks, no mosquitoes seen in the yard.
2012: Another zebra swallowtail this morning. To Fairborn Park: the canopy appears to be complete all around. Cottonwood cotton there in the pond.
2013: Sweet rocket and sweet Williams well budded, quince petals all over the pond, bamboo at least five feet now. Bella and I startled a female mallard in the pine grove at Ellis Pond. She flew off, leaving eleven eggs in her nest.
2014: Liz’s alliums have started, five blooms beside her forget-me-nots. Lily-of-the-valley has started to bloom at the Champneys’ house. Light petal fall along Dayton Street. Several yards with dandelions all to seed. First star of Bethlehem opened in the north garden; the spring has been so cold that they are about two-weeks late.
2015: A second red admiral, this one resting in the sun on the side of the shed. A turtle seen run over on the road near the wetlands in Beavercreek. Bugle (Adjuga reptans) is blossoming, its blue-purple flowers standing straight up in the lawn on the Stafford/Dayton Street corner, dandelions to seed throughout, burning bush starting to flower at Peggy’s, first iris open in the yard and along Limestone Street. In the alley, the bluebells are gone (but still good at home), and the bittersweet has buds, half-developed leaves. All about the neighborhood, honeysuckles are budded and should bloom any day, some banks of full azaleas seen.
2016: Rick reported a bald eagle circling above his property at 5:30 this evening.
2018: At Keuka Lake, the weeping willow is yellow green, foliage thin, the space of its branches translucent and allowing the lake and the sunrise to come through. A spindly cherry is flowering, and a couple of lost daffodils and grape hyacinths. At the dock, the birch has leaves half an inch long. Near the house, the silver maple is shedding seeds.
2019: Catchweed, ranunculus and sweet Cicely in flower around the yard. Snowball viburnums all around town, and the white-flowering viburnum Jeanie and I bought in Asheville sa many years ago is filled with blossoms, peaking as the crab apple nearby loses its pink-red petals. At Ellis in the evening, raucous and explosive mating competition of six geese. Leslie reports a scarlet tanager, a catbird, a great-crested flycatcher and a magnolia warbler singing in her yard.
2020: The circle garden gradually reveals its hyacinths now from among the daffodil foliage as peony buds crack a little to show their inner color. In the dooryard garden, the first azalea buds have opened. Three milkweed stalks have risen almost a foot through the weeds in the north garden.
Language of flowers….Angry tulips with you darling manflower punish your cactus if you don’t please poor forget-me-not how I long violets to dear roses when we soon anemone meet all naughty nightstalk wife Martha’s perfume.
James Joyce