July 4th

The 185th Day of the Year

 

I’ve seen a firefly on my porch these past two days.

Well, summer is their time.

Unlit they fly like lazy full bottles –

narrow-necked cargo craft of insectdom aloft.

Dark tilted plumb bobs headed for the night,

treading air on fluttering wings.

Lighting, they rise like buoyant Mary Poppinses

borne heavenward on nimbuses.

On the 4th they are their own fuse and starburst,

semaphore, golden glow, and audience

of silent oohs and ahs

 

Robert Paschell

 

Sunrise/set: 5:11/8:07

Day’s Length: 14 hours 56 minutes

Average High/Low: 85/64

Average Temperature: 74

Record High: 107 – 1911

Record Low: 49 – 1968

Weather

The Dog Star brings an afternoon in the 90s forty-five percent of the time on this date – the highest percentage of 90s so far in the year. Eighties occur forty percent of the days, 70s ten percent, 60s five percent. Skies are clear to partly cloudy eight days in ten, but showers pass through four years in a decade. Nighttime temperatures are generally in the 60s, with 50s occurring only 15 to 20 percent of the time.

Natural Calendar

The sun reached its highest position in the sky, a declination of 23 degrees – 26 minutes, on June 19th. It remained at that height through June 23rd, and on the following day it began to fall a fraction of a degree every 24 hours. The effect was not measurable on sunrise/sunset charts until the 26th when the night grew by a minute for the first time since the middle of December.

Since that late-June change in the tilt of Earth, sunset has remained steady at 8:07 p.m. in Yellow Springs. This week, however, sunset finally gives way and loses its first minute since December 2. Sunrise became three minutes later in the last days of June, and loses another five minutes this week.

In the middle of those reversals in the fortunes of summer, the first days of July bring aphelion, the point at which the Earth is about 153 million kilometers (its greatest distance) from the sun. Aphelion occurs almost exactly six months from perihelion, Earth’s position closest to the sun (about 148 million kilometers). The first week of July is the reverse of the first week of the new year, and as the ripening of Deep Summer intensifies, the other side of time begins its passage to spring.

The sky of aphelion reflects this parallel universe of circular time. At noon, the stars over the United States are the stars of perihelion midnight: Orion due south, the Pleiades overhead. On the clearest July afternoons, January’s Sirius is visible in the southeast. The Big Dipper lies in the northeast, Cepheus in the northwest. Leo is rising. Pegasus is setting.

On the other hand, this week’s night sky is the day sky of Middle Winter. The teapot-like star formation of Libra lies in the south, followed by Scorpius and its red center, Antares. Sagittarius, the Archer, follows the Scorpion in the southeast. Above the Archer, the Milky Way sweeps up toward Cassiopeia in the north.

 

Libra weighs in equal scales the year.

James Thomson

 

Daybook

1982: Henbit still blooming in the yard. Local sweet corn is ready now. Peak of the wild raspberry season in the woods.

1983: A baby robin in the yard hopped away into the honeysuckles as I approached.

1984: To Ellis Pond at the edge of town: Blue dayflowers blooming along the water, milkweed beetles mating, black walnuts almost full size, chicory, sweet clover and Queen Anne’s lace marking the roadsides. Lesser stitchwort identified. The parsnips are going to seed, and the oldest apple tree branches are losing their leaves.

1986: First cicada heard. Hummingbird moths drink the impatiens. Delicate lopseed is in full bloom, and monarda, and spurge at the Cascades, first touch-me-not, grackles feeding their young all afternoon.

1988: On the road north from Miami, Florida: Early rainy season horseweed and wild lettuce common along the road, ragweed in full bloom near Jacksonville, elderberries still flowering there and all the way up the Eastern coast.

1990: Robins continuous clucking. Purple finches feeding, preening in the apple tree. Blue jays gone now; late June brought the loudest activity. No cardinals heard today. Maybe the first cicada yesterday evening, one call only.

1991: Osage and black walnuts maybe two thirds developed. First white phlox opens. First katydid heard, loud at 9:40 p.m.

1993: Daylilies and Asiatic lilies close to early full bloom now in the yard and throughout the village. One purple coneflower fully open in the east garden, two more coming on. Lychnis is about over for the summer, needs to be cut back.

1996: A small flock of robins noticed in the back trees today. Have they congregated early for migration or for mulberry picking, nesting done?

1998: Daylilies full bloom along the north garden. First town cicadas heard in the yard today. In the Glen, they sang the last week of June.

1999: Cicadas heard today, just a few.

2000: Full mallows, daylilies, Asiatic and Oriental lilies, heliopsis, gay feather, yarrow, gooseneck, early obedient plant, Shasta daisies, mid-season hosta, red monardas, some roses, middle hollyhocks.

2005: Returned yesterday after ten days in the South. Robins sang at 4:17 a.m., cardinals at 4:27, doves waiting until almost 6:00. In the gardens: full bloom of ramps, monarda, daylilies (22 varieties counted), 5 varieties of Asiatic/Oriental lilies, mallow, gooseneck, heliopsis, astilbe, oak leaf hydrangea, yellow yarrow, moonbeam coreopsis, achillea.

Early full bloom of Queen Anne’s lace, purple coneflowers, hollyhocks, bicolor hosta, Shasta daisy. Pink spirea fading quickly. Late full lizard’s tail, blue hosta, larkspur, water willow, daisy fleabane. Very last lamb’s ear, foxglove and sweet Williams. Yucca gone here but seen full bloom in the South. Japanese beetles in the primroses. No cicadas yet. Greg called in the afternoon, having seen his first monarch, one that had just emerged.

2006: Jerusalem artichokes tall, black raspberries almost gone in the alley, chicory bright blue at the back of Mateo’s yard this morning in the rain. The yucca, full bloom for days, lost its flowers overnight.

2007: Yuccas have been bare for over a week now. A few fingerling koi still swim at the shallow end of the pond, have survived three days at least. Japanese beetles getting thick now; today was the worst day so far. Tiger swallowtail on the purple coneflowers. Don’s Shasta daisies are in full bloom; ours are fully budded but not out yet. His rudbeckia speciosa are getting ready to flower. At the feeder, the red-bellied woodpecker and the nuthatch fed constantly throughout the late morning. Huge flurry of yellow leaves from the locust tree in a gust of wind before lunch.

2010: High in the 90s today, humid, classic Dog Day. Robins peeping steadily, cicadas calling, sparrows chirping as they vie for the birdseed, sparrow fledglings still fluttering their wings, begging for food. A slight turning of the green in the leaves and undergrowth throughout the region now, a midsummer darkening of color, a thickening of the air and the atmosphere and mood. Tonight, I made the mistake of letting Bella out the back door about 10:00: she surprised a skunk and was grazed with its spray.

2011: In the afternoon, a yellow swallowtail and the first hummingbird moth of the summer at the north garden monarda. In the Phillips Street alley, Japanese knotweed was budding, and burdock was getting ready to bud. Another half pint of raspberries picked this evening, these to eat with the lemon cream pie.

2012: Cardinals began to call at 4:20 this morning, robins already in chorus at that time, strong birdsong well through the dawn. Tree frogs heard when I went out to the shed at 5:30, sparrows full. Grackles and starlings at 6:30. The earliest patch of monarda is fading now, lilies holding very high at thirty-seven varieties. Cardinal vespers before sundown.

2013: Lilies are up to twenty-five types now. Joe Pye weed has headed. Zinnias are gathering momentum, gooseneck and heliopsis are in full flower, and the few Shasta daisy plants and purple coneflowers (along with the lilies); they and the monarda provide much of the garden’s color since the roses have completed their spring and Early Summer cycle and the stella d’oros are done, as well. Yucca still flowering in town, but coming to the end of its season.  The first Japanese beetle found in the north garden. Tonight: all kinds of tree frogs loud near King Street.

2014: One brown and one polygonia butterfly this afternoon. Unusually cool, beautiful weather, bright sun, low in the 50s, high in the middle 70s.  Occasional micrathena spiders (with webs, of course) occurring in the honeysuckles now, the autumn webs and process beginning.

2015: Another mild 4th of July. One red admiral. Bee balm full of honeybees. Bright sun, cool. Forty-three different lily plants in bloom. Things much the same as they were this day in 2013, 2014. But I look for hummingbird moths in the bee balm, none seen. No cicadas heard. On the bike path north: many Canadian thistles with puffy down, tall bellflower in full bloom all along the way, some dogbane, and several places with  an unidentified eupatorium-type plant, six feet, whorled leaves, smooth stem, white flowers (but not really open yet), petals indistinguishable in axils and at the top. In the pasture across from Ellis Pond, I noticed a small flock of starlings, maybe several dozen. Riding home along Stafford Street: one tattered yucca plant and the first phlox, soft violet, seen in bloom.

2016: This morning, a camel cricket, medium size, in the bathtub, the second in the past week or so. Outside: rain and cold again, but the lily count is back up to forty-six, and this definitely seems to be the peak for their blossoms. Around them, drifts of heliopsis and monarda, patches of milkweed, spiderwort, Shasta daisies, hydrangeas and purple coneflowers. From Ithaca, New York, Jill sent photos of ditch lilies in full bloom and staghorn “horns” reddening. Against the north wall of my house in Yellow Springs, the ferns are rusting now, and the foliage of the spiderwort has become old and worn, even though the plants continue to bloom somewhat.

2017: Keuka Lake habitat, western New York state: sweet peas pink and purple; birdsfoot trefoil here and chicory and all the way from Ohio, also Canadian thistles with matted down; daisy fleabane, Queen Anne’s lace, white sweet clover and common daisies; ditch lilies in full flower like last year; fat white lizard’s tail and goldenrod in bloom, peonies, lilacs and poppies with their wilted flower stalks appearing to have completed their seasons maybe a couple of weeks ago; teasel tall but not blooming.

2018: One hundred fifty-four day lily blossoms, seven Asiatics, six ditch lilies. This is the second day of the height of Lily Summer, and those plants surrounded by milkweed still sweet in patches, heliopsis, Shasta daisies, purple coneflowers spiderwort, zinnias starting to come in, the first bright red canna lily. Sparrows steady chirping. Two goldfinches visited while we sat on the porch before 8:00. First chipmunk in many years seen exploring the stones by the fountain. One monarch in the milkweed. Black swallowtail seen along Davis Street.

2019: A record temperature in Fairbanks, Alaska today: 90 degrees. Intense heat continues across Europe and the eastern United States. Leslie and Bruce heard more cicadas, the second full day. Along Keuka Lake in New York, a catalpa tree had all its flowers.

2020: Fifty-four ditch lilies this morning. Asiatic lilies: three, day lilies: 70. Joe Pye has headed, spiderwort in what feels like rapid decline. Bee balm full of small and large bumblebees. Mid-season hostas are budding, almost ready to open. Fireflies flickering throughout the evening, despite the lack of rain. No cicadas heard yet.

 

And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields,

And brown ants in the little wells beneath them,

And mossy scales of the worm fence, heap’d stones, elder, mullein and poke-weed.

Walt Whitman