Under the same sun

 

 

Remember the eclipse in April, the auroras a weekend ago? These have been once-in-a-lifetime experiences  in this most beautiful spring.

Almost full moon again.  Days of rain and sun.  The  irises are blooming now---and peonies! 

It may be "no mow May"  but  I can hear a  power mowers down the street. Yes, the grass is growing so fast, and so are the milkweeds. It seems to me there are more wildflower gardens and prairie gardens this year.   And vegetable gardens, too. 

Now is the time for planting.  So many varieties of peppers and tomatoes!  Eggplants, beans, zucchini....You can find them at plant centers, hardware stores. The Jewel has them too, along with hanging baskets of begonias. 

People feel an urgency to  be outside.  For some, this means working in the dirt, to feel warm earth in  their hands.

Maybe this happens every year about this time. but this year, there are 17-year cicadas emerging, too.  We have been waiting for them, here in Oak Park. I saw the first shells yesterday. Today, Sunday, I saw some in flight! 

I felt  graced by a creature that knows the warming ground, the feel of the trees, the urgency of life.  There is something ancient, primordial about them.  For a moment,  we share the same air, under the same sun.

Crossing into May

 

 Now come lovely May days.  Every day, more green.

Time for planning and planting.  Garden centers are busy.  Native plants are gaining in popularity-- milkweeds are part of butterfly gardens and meadow gardens.   

Take the time to admire the blooming trees and flowers, now---bluebells and Solomon Seal, violets and dandelions, the tiny bell-shaped flowers of the lily-of the valley, a  gift of luck on the first of May.  There are lilacs and the red bud trees, The arching branches of white flowers of spirea, sometimes called  bridal veil or meadow sweet. The buds of the  peonies will be blooming  at the end of May.

There are still colorful tulips, too. did you know there are early, mid-season, and late blooming varieties? Did you know the striped tulips are called Rembrandt tulips after the artist who pained them? 

We are a little over over halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.  We have over 14 hours of daylight, now. According to the Wheel of the Year, May 1 is a cross- quarter day,  the beginning of summer and the growing season. 

On May 7,  there will be a new moon again, after the new moon and solar eclipse on April 8. The sun and moon move on.  Every day now is increasing daylight until the summer solstice.

And soon, there will be the emergence of cicadas,  No,  they don't bite or sting.  But  they have come to share this spring with us.  They too will have their time in the sun. 

Yellow like the sun

 

Our sun may be just one of billions, but it is our sun, and our eyes have opened to its light.  Our eyes have seen the moon eclipse the sun with its shadow.

After the eclipse, the moon moves on, approaching full moon again. And we too move on,  with our lives----bills and taxes, spring cleaning, projects and plans. 

These are the increasing days of daylight We have gained over 4 hours and 33 minutes of light since the winter solstice!   Sunrises will be before 6am, with dawn before 5:30am.  Sunsets are after 7:30 pm. 

 These are the days of dandelions, their yellow faces like the sun...

Eclipse Watch 2024

 This is a diagram of solar and lunar eclipses.  Eclipses don't happen every day, but they are predictable.  People  have known about the April 8 solar eclipse years before the Great American Eclipse of August 21, 2017. 

Why was the 2017 eclipse so special? According to Wikipedia---

The August 2017 eclipse was the first with a path of totality crossing the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the U.S. since the solar eclipse of 1918. Also, its path of totality made landfall exclusively within the United States, making it the first such eclipse since the country's declaration of independence in 1776.

Do you remember the Post Office issued commemorative Eclipse stamps?  Do you remember then-President Donald Trump watching the eclipse on the White House balcony? No eclipse glasses for him!

It was a hot, hot summer day.  

In a way, the 2017 eclipse was a prelude to 2024---this time, the path of totality will be wider, extending  from Mexico to Canada.  The totality phase of the April 8 eclipse is expected to last twice as long as it did in 2017. 

The Chicago area will experience around  94% totality on Monday, April 8, 2024.  There will be over 4 minutes of darkness. 

Once again, Carbondale IL will be in the path of  100%  totality, like the  eclipse in  2017.  Millions of people will be going to some place along the path of totality---including  big cities  like Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo and Burlington, Vt.  

There will be traffic,  cell-phone disruptions,  Security and National Guard are on call.  Many schools are closing for the day. Motels and Airbnbs are all booked up already.  

Oh yes, there will be money being made that day--t-shirts and souvenir mugs that are temperature sensitive. Magnets, key chains, water bottles,  and more.

Things have changed since 2017.  That was before the plague, the 2020 election, January 6, 2021, wars in Ukraine and Gaza.  Those are the concerns of men. The cycles of the eclipses go on.

You can read more about the upcoming April 8 eclipse at Astronomy.com. 

Yes, they can predict eclipses,  but the weather is more uncertain. Will there be clouds along the path on April 8?   We'll see....

You can watch a live stream of the eclipse at NASA.com.

Also, at EarthSky 

 

Opening Day!

 

Opening day

 ---A field of dreams, dreams of grass and a white ball in a cloudless blue sky.

It's a  beautiful day for baseball.  

In reality, the weather on opening day may be overcast, maybe rain or even snow, winter parkas and wind chills. But that doesn't matter.   It's baseball  season again.

 What about March Madness? What about hockey and basketball?  Those are winter games.

Not today.  Today is Opening Day of the 2024 Major League Baseball season. Is it true what they say, that life begins on Opening Day?

And today, the  Chicago White Sox will be playing their home opener against the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field.  The  first pitch is set for 3:10 p.m. CDT.

 According to AccuWeather, it will be mostly sunny and 51 degrees, wind WSW 10 mph. 

Today everything begins again.

Play Ball!

 

Spring Equinox

 

 

 

 

The spring equinox will be on  March 19 at 10:06 pm in Chicago.  This marks the beginning of astronomical spring. Do you feel the March wind in your hair?  It could be raw and wintry, or maybe balmy and breezy...

Put the hats and scarves away. Open the windows!   No, maybe not today.

What is the  March Equinox anyway?  Here's how EarthSky explains it---

 

 The March equinox – aka the vernal equinox – marks the sun’s crossing above Earth’s equator, moving from south to north. Earth’s tilt on its axis is what causes this northward shift of the sun’s path across our sky at this time of year. Earth’s tilt is now bringing spring and summer to the Northern Hemisphere. At the same time, the March equinox marks the beginning of autumn – and a shift toward winter – in the Southern Hemisphere.

You can read more about the equinox from EarthSky here.  

Our ancestors celebrated spring, the signs of new green and the increasing light of our days.  There will  be gatherings at Stonehenge, and other ancient sites.

 In Chicago, they dyed the river green on March 16 for St.  Patrick's Day, and people were out wearing green.  

And on the spring equinox there will be photographers taking photos of the rising and setting of the sun between the tall buildings along the East-West grid of the streets of Chicago---a sight they call Chicagohenge. 

Here are some breathtaking photos of Chicagohenge from Spring 2022.  Happy Spring! 

The Moods of March

Oh yes, March is a moody month--days of sun, days of overcast gray...A chill in the shade, and warmer in the sun. A cold front coming through,  bringing rain and maybe even snow.  The next day, a sweet warm breeze. 

 

And there is no blue quite like that March blue sky--the clarity!  The light on the new green leaves.

After the time shift, there is more light in the evenings, now. Sunsets after 7 pm.   And dark at 6am, and the streetlights are still on.  But we are counting down the days to the equinox on March 19---astronomical spring!  

 

March is tulips and  daffodils.

March is primary voting and Saint Patrick's Day parade! 

March is the Green Chicago river for Saint Patrick's Day

March is  Spring and Chicagohenge.

March is buds on the branches, and spring training baseball!  

The warmer than average February is also bringing us an early spring, which also means pothole repair season, construction season, and allergy season.

And 4 years ago today on March 11 2020, The World Health Organization declared a pandemic emergency with COVID-19.  Do you remember how everything changed?  Remember who was President then. Remember how many people died. Remember the lock downs, the fear and uncertainty.  

 

We have learned a lot, and things have changed since then, but the plague is still with us.  Now is the time to get the updated vaccine.  Or a booster, if you got the updated vaccine last fall.

 

March is also the start of  severe weather season---storms and even tornadoes---and we could still get snow, even  in April! 

 

As they say, March is many weathers....