Happy Longerdays!

[serious crayons]

I seem not to be adapting well to the shortening of days. Once it's dark, I keep feeling that it should be about an hour later than it actually is. Right now I feel like it should be 10:20 p.m., but it's only 9:20 p.m.

I am starting to think I react worse to the loss of light than I do to the loss of warmth.

[CellarDweller]

I seem not to be adapting well to the shortening of days. Once it's dark, I keep feeling that it should be about an hour later than it actually is. Right now I feel like it should be 10:20 p.m., but it's only 9:20 p.m.

I do that sometimes too.  I'll look at the clock and think, "Oh, is that all it is?"

[Jeff Wrangler]

I am starting to think I react worse to the loss of light than I do to the loss of warmth.

That's pretty much how I feel.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I had a pile of trimmings higher than me.

I hope that's not going to cause you problems with the neighbors, (I ain't jokin'.) 

[Front-Ranger]

They're in the back yard for now, out of sight. In about a week I'll be dragging them up to the front and piling them in a certain seafoam pick-up truck for hauling to the chipping yard.

[Jeff Wrangler]

They're in the back yard for now, out of sight. In about a week I'll be dragging them up to the front and piling them in a certain seafoam pick-up truck for hauling to the chipping yard.

More wood chips?

(You mean that old thing still runs?)

[Jeff Wrangler]

The ripe berries are falling from the dogwoods at the house.

[Jeff Wrangler]

The ripe berries are falling from the dogwoods at the house.

They are very red and really falling, yet were are apparently in for more summery weather.

These evening I had a great view of the moon at first quarter as it tracked across the southern sky.

[Jeff Wrangler]

We also seem to be approaching, if we are not there already, that sort of mystical time of year when the sun and the moon are visible at the same time.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Thought I'd slot this in here.

I'm very sad to learn that the almanac I've enjoyed for many, many years is probably going to cease publication after the edition for this coming year 2025. The almanac was first published in 1825--that's 200 years ago--so I think that makes it even sadder. The editor included a message in the catalog that arrived yesterday that they are no longer offering five-year subscriptions. Postage rises twice a year with no predictability, and most of the information they include is now available for free on the internet.

Still, I cannot imagine looking this stuff up and reading it on a tablet. 

I enjoy the lists of monthly moon phases, moveable feasts, significant days, and the solstices and equinoxes.

What I like best, though, are the monthly calendars that include the times of the rising and the setting of the sun. It's fun to be able to track the days getting longer and then shorter through the course of the year. I'm sure I could find the time of today's sunset on the internet, but it just wouldn't be as much fun as having the times through the whole month right in front of you on one page, so you can track it.

The future does not look promising. 

It's called Baer's Agricultural Almanac & Gardener's Guide, "Carefully calculated for the Meridian of Pennsylvania and the adjoining States."