May 8th
The 128th Day of the Year
In the flowers find a solace,
Fleeting cure for every sadness,
Fragrant physic for your longing,
Certain aid for loneliness.
Celtus
Sunrise/set: 5:27/7:36
Day’s Length: 14 hours 9 minutes
Average High/Low: 70/49
Average Temperature: 59
Record High: 89 – 1926
Record Low: 30 – 1947
Weather
Today’s high gets above 70 on 60 percent of the years (and a third of those years in the 80s). Mild 60s occur one day in four, and cooler 50s or 40s can be expected fewer than one in five. With the arrival of the second major high-pressure system of the month, there is a possibility of a return of Lilac Winter today and tomorrow, and frost has been recorded in my weather history more often this morning than on any other in May: it strikes 20 percent of all the years. The sun shines 85 percent of the time, making May 8 one of the brighter days of the month. Chances of rain are only one in four, and that makes May 8 one of the two driest days of the month (the 16th is the other prime day for field and garden work).
The Weather in the Week Ahead
An average day in May’s second quarter brings rain 25 to 40 percent of the time. The 8th, 11th and the 13th are likely to the driest of the week, the 12th and 14th the wettest. Typical highs almost always reach above 60 degrees after the 10th of May, and they rise to 70 or above at least 60 percent of the afternoons. May 11 is the day with the warmest weather history of the month: a full 50 percent of May 11ths bring temperatures in the 80s, something which doesn’t happen again until June 1. Also after May 10, the chances of a killing frost drop below five percent.
Natural Calendar
When apple blossoms fall, then the first sweet rocket, fleabane, sweet Cicely, daisy, fire pink, common plantain, white clover, chamomile, black medic, star of Bethlehem, lily-of-the-valley, sweet William, meadow goat’s beard, May apple, and wood sorrel almost always open.
The woods are filled with garlic mustard, green and white among the still bare trees. It’s the best time of all for blue forget-me-not, golden ragwort, water cress, wild geranium, miterwort, swamp buttercup, late toad trillium, late trillium grandiflorum, late winter cress, white spring cress and the wild purple phlox.
Mock orange and strawberries come into full bloom when the last crabapple petals are gone. A few early poppies and peonies unravel then. Early iris and lupines are budding. Astilbe and clematis have formed flower heads. Summer hostas are eight to ten inches tall. Ferns, daylilies, comfrey, summer phlox have reached almost two feet. In the parks, the paths are thick with violets.
Mayflies are out along the water. Bullfrogs call. Minnows and chubs are flushed red for their mating season. Flea time begins for pets, a sign that insect activity is nearing the economic threshold on the farm. Spitbugs grow in the shelter of swamp parsnips, announcing that the first cut of hay will soon be underway. The first small groups of monarch butterflies that left Texas in February cross the Ohio River. Flies become pesky in the mild afternoons.
The Stars
Cassiopeia and the Milky Way lie on the northern horizon before midnight. Cygnus rises from the northeast, Ophiuchus from the east, Sagittarius and Libra from the southeast. Centaurus and Corvus are low on the southern horizon, Virgo above them. Hydra snakes across the southwest. Monoceros is setting in the west, Gemini going down due west, Capella and Perseus disappearing into the northwest.
Daybook
1982: Lily-of-the-valley blooms. Canopy developing quickly, honeysuckle blooming.
1984: Covered Bridge: A few last violet cress, spring beauties. At home, sweet rockets are starting to send up their flower stalks. Sweet Cicely foliage strong, but no buds yet. Jacob’s ladder open. Crab apples still in full bloom this Late Spring. Magnolias dropping more petals.
1986: First mock orange flowers.
1988: Catalpa leaves an inch long. No sweet rockets yet. Henbit tall and thick, bright purple, dominant in parts of the yard and taking over from the violets. Several patches of blue iris seen in town. High canopy still not full. Garlic mustard chest high. First June bug gets in the house. At South Glen: honeysuckles, sweet Cicely, catchweed blooming. Purple deadnettle yellows, chickweed patches decaying. Goldenrod six inches high. Dogbane spears like asparagus, eight inches. Carp mating in the stubby lizard’s tail along the river bank.
1990: In the yard, just a few tattered tulips left. Lilies are up to a foot and a half high. Forget-me-nots and yellow buttercups are lush. Pyrethrums and daisies about to unravel. A few poppies have big buds. Dogwood still holds full. Tonight, a full moon walk at the Indian Mound: canopy still open enough to follow the path. Fireflies glowing in the flowers. Spitbugs visible on the plants. Columbine, May apple, garlic mustard, sweet rocket, waterleaf in bloom. Some phlox. Swamp full of late, golden winter cress. One white campion identified in the pale moonlight, a few wild geranium, sweet Cicely.
1991: First spider web of the year seen near the comfrey. Dogwoods and lilacs hold on, mock orange early bloom.
1993: First star of Bethlehem opens at the garden gate. Comfrey and horseradish are budding.
1995: At South Glen, the cream-colored six-petaled cohosh is in late bloom. The first catchweed is flowering. Lizard’s tail has two to three leaves along the river bank. Last of the bluebells at home.
1998: Four out of our five rhododendrons are opening now. First mock orange here, but others in town well developed. Fourteen leaves on the water lily. Patches of daisies by the roadside.
2000: Azalea petals fall all at once now as two purple rhododendrons, one poppy, three daisies open; mock orange and golden ranunculus are close to full bloom, like iris and poppies throughout town. Thirteen leaves on the water lily in the pond.
2001: A yellow tiger swallowtail crossed the yard this afternoon. At Washington Courthouse, white and red clover, black medic seen. Wheat deep green, close to a foot and a half high. Cressleaf groundsel has replaced winter cress in the uncultivated fields. Sunset observed driving back from school: 8:37 p.m. exactly, versus the 8:36 on my sunrise/sunset tables.
2002: Columbus: Korean lilac is in full bloom, azalea, wisteria, honeysuckle. The courtyard canopy at school is near completion, including the white oaks. All along the 50 miles between Yellow Springs and Columbus and then 30 miles south to Washington Court House, the dandelion heads are white, the end of their great spring bloom. At home, rhubarb is three feet tall.
2003: To Madison, Wisconsin: Locust flower clusters are the landmarks all the way to the Illinois border, the canopy well filled at about the same level as in Yellow Springs. By about 50 miles south of Rockford, Illinois, a little south and west of Chicago, we overtook the spring dandelion bloom. One redbud seen at Rockford, then full-blooming dandelions into Madison. In the city: more redbuds, full-blooming crab apples, late pink magnolias, early purple and white lilacs, trillium grandiflorum, lungwort, Jack-in-the-pulpit, bleeding hearts, daffodils, tulips, bluebells, violets, a yellow bellwort-like flower, and a few iris (which seem to follow more of a solar cycle than one based on temperature – since they are also starting now in Yellow Springs).
2004: Locusts seen in Dayton full bloom three days ago. Yesterday in the woods, a Baltimore oriole and a great-crested flycatcher seen. In the east garden, sweet rockets are coming in. The first clematis flowers unfolded this morning. Sweet Cicely blossoms in the west garden. Lamb’s ear is heading up near the pond. Purple loosestrife transplanted from the pond to the ground, stems about two feet tall. Russian sage sprouts are two to four inches long, butterfly bush and Joe Pye weed to about 15 inches, Most hosta foliage seems summer size. Pink quince flowers are almost all gone. Some of the fresh bamboo stalks have grown up to eight feet.
2005: Bamboo has been leafing for several days now. The red azalea is in full bloom, and the late tulips that have held for weeks. Hackberry just starting as petal fall deepens, most early apples gone (but some late apple trees and shrubs still full), pink quince just starting. Osage orange starting to leaf, is behind the hackberry. White mulberry now expands quickly, pacing the sweet gum, the sycamore, the American beech. Very first Korean lilac flowers open. Wild geraniums in full bloom in the front garden. Iris budded under the peach tree.
2006: American beech leaves, after their deliberate, low start, are well developed now.
2007: First spiderwort opened overnight. Red-bellied woodpecker heard once just before dawn. Anemones continue to bloom in the apple tree garden, highlighting the violet wood hyacinths, the pink-violet dead nettle, the allium and chives (coming in together), and the Indian hyacinths. Poppies seen full in Xenia and along Elm Street. Ramps have all withered. Resurrection lilies have collapsed. Bluebells done under the mock orange. Comfrey completely open. Star of Bethlehem continues to provide significant blooms to the early May north garden. Mrs. Timberlake’s wild geranium garden shows how banks of that flower can create a fine late April and May bed. First tiger swallowtail seen this afternoon.
2008: Honeysuckle is opening along the north garden hedge. Horseradish is suddenly full bloom beside the rhubarb. The red azaleas are still strong, but the standard lilacs are starting to decline in the alley – just as the Korean lilac is coming in beside the porch and the hyacinths are filling the circle garden with violet and pale pink. Song sparrow calls seem to be replacing the cardinal and dove calls. The yard is so green today, the sky gray, light rain, everything glowing with new life. Down Grinnell Road, the white water cress flowers are thick by the spring. Two clumps of sweet rockets, the first seen this year, are in bloom on the way south from Xenia. The tree line along the way to Wilmington is bright and filling in, maybe about the same as Savannah, Georgia, was in the last week of March (six weeks, then, ahead of southwestern Ohio). Corn is up two inches in the fields, winter wheat at least a foot tall, quivering in the wind. Pollen spikes have appeared on the pond iris plants.
2010: To Cincinnati in the morning, gray skies, hard wind and cold: Locusts in bloom the whole way. I made a fire for Jeanie before I left, and we kept it going throughout the day after I got back. In the yard, violet sweet rockets and violet iris provide quiet early May color, and at the southwest corner, the mock orange buds have all opened. I covered the hydrangeas and many of the lilies against frost after supper.
2011: More rain overnight. Robins before dawn, then the red-bellied woodpecker called steadily. Ruby saw the first hummingbirds at her feeder yesterday. Don’s cherry has lost its last petal, and a few of his iris have budded. The petals of our red crab apple are almost all down, and the pink quince is starting to shed into the pond. First spicebush swallowtail seen on the Korean lilac.
2012: Starling and cowbird fledglings at the feeder. Robins peeping steadily throughout the day, probably talking to their young. Along High Street, very early privet blossoms. Locust leaves and many black walnut leaves about half size. Kousa dogwoods full at the park. Meadow goat’s beard seen on the way to Fairborn, and budded bull thistles and very tall opening hemlock. Red clover, fields of white clover, lots of yellow sweet clover, some multiflora roses, the last of the garlic mustard, and sweet Cicely all gone. A huge sow thistle blooms downtown across from the health food store. Chives and allium hold. One columbine in bloom near Lawson Place, and a few of Peggy’s orange Asiatic lilies have opened. Honeysuckle and wood hyacinth flowers disappearing quickly, oak leaf hydrangea buds increasing quickly. A medium-size camel cricket found in the tub this morning; Jeanie found one in the laundry room last week.
2013: Blueberry bushes are flowering now, allium gaining momentum. The Korean lilac came into bloom overnight, the standard lilacs and wisteria keeping their petals well. A deer surprised in the back woods this morning. The lilies will probably disappear this year when I am gone, just like when we left in 2011. A pair of grackles and the red-bellied woodpecker active around the yard through the day.
I sent Cathy in Vermont a copy of my description of the great dandelion bloom on Cross-Quarter Day (April 21) here in Yellow Springs. She wrote back:
“I could change your date of April 21 and everything you said would describe what it is like here right now. This is 2-1/2 weeks after Cross Quarter time. Of course, we are further north. I went out delivering with Charles and Andrew this afternoon and the tree blossoms were like a carnival, every kind of pink and bunches of white. The lilacs were even budding out. A few days ago there were forsythia everywhere you looked, and they seemed especially bright.”
2014: Along Phillips Street, snowball bushes are almost in full flower, and daisies are leaning across the sidewalk, budding. Joe Pye Weed uncovered in the back garden, overgrown, maybe half a foot tall, spindly. The pink quince is dropping its pale petals, and they cover much of the pond, hiding its silt and algae. On the north side of the house, the apple tree by the gate is still in full bloom, a deep red-pink, and the viburnum has put out all its flowers. First glimpse of a tiger swallowtail as I was eating lunch on the back porch. Ellis Pond at 4:00 this afternoon: toads screaming, water cress leaves deep green, full bloom of its white flowers.
2015: Robins singing when I went outside at 4:00. I heard the first cardinal at 4:20. At John Bryan Park, drifts of dandelions to seed beside large patches of ragwort. Redbuds fading and leafing now, silver olives still full. The first common fleabane and the first ranunculus opened by the pond today. The pink quince on the south side of the house has lost all its petals, as has the red crab apple in the front. The lungwort flowers are finally gone, and its leaves are growing now. Pachysandra has put on fresh growth. The azalea remains full and bright. A male tiger swallowtail seen downtown this afternoon, and the first sweet rocket flowered by the trellis. In the Atlantic, an early hurricane is expected to come ashore in the Carolinas within a couple of days.
2017: Inventory listing on my return from Spain and Italy after an absence of fifty-three days: Mock orange, Korean lilac, Kousa dogwoods, tulip trees, one peony plot, red-flowered “buckeyes,” white and pink bleeding hearts, wisteria (some), allium, honeysuckle, garlic mustard, celandine, Jeanie’s blueberry bush, poppies, great ragwort, daisies, celandine, sweet Cicely, common fleabane, star of Bethlehem, locusts, late hyacinths, spiderwort, weigelas, the red dooryard azalea (just ready to collapse), east patch of ranunculus (having spread over a number of square yards now, iris, catchweed, ground ivy, lamium, violet clematis, sweet rockets all in full bloom. Budding: peonies, grapes, astilbe, woodland hydrangea. The canopy has not filled in all the way here like it has in Spain and Italy, but the locust flowers perhaps are giving a premature sign of the end of Late Spring.
2018: Inventory on returning from Keuka Lake with Jill after four days away: While I was gone, the red crab apple tree near the dooryard came into full bloom, and hostas in the dooryard garden itself had suddenly risen up over the sprawling snowdrops, and pressed in against the hellebores, which receded before the broad hosta foliage. The buds of the old azalea shrub were just starting to reach out, and the first wild geraniums in that triangle of the garden were open.
Along the east wall of the house, small-leafed celandine was in bloom, and the buttercups were starting. All around the front yard, the forsythia shrubs now provided almost a complete barrier against the street. In the south garden, some bamboo had grown to more than six feet, the gangly lilac shrubs had a few lilacs and the pink quince was in full flower. In the circle garden, the Indian hyacinths were coming in, and the sheaths of the wood hyacinths were pushing up from their basal foliage..
Beside the north side of the house, the ferns, which had been slow to respond to the first warm days, were now spreading out, and the peonies had buds half an inch across. The viburnum was straining to bloom to catch up with the viburnums blossoming around town. The trellis wisteria had a few fat blossom clusters. The buds of Jill’s poppies were huge and heavy, ready to open up, and her sweet rockets were fully budded.
2019: To Keuka Lake and a return to Early and Middle Spring: Pink magnolias, weeping cherries, crab apples, late pears, forsythia, daffodils, tulips, dandelions, garlic mustard all in full bloom. A glimpse of a bog of skunk cabbages, leaves well started. Along the freeway, full winter cress, patches of May apples, fresh and shiny. At the lake, the birch tree leaves were the same size as last year, but still holding their catkins. The tree line all across western New York was one of the first week of April in Yellow Springs: pale yellow-greens mixed with yellow-browns and oranges, the tallest trees and those with the most foliage rose like umbrellas through the less advanced understory. From Yellow Springs, Leslie reports gray tree frogs singing.
Sweet daily surprise,
To open my eyes and see the light
and think:
Still I live, I am, endure.
Flavio Herrera