Essays

Here’s a quick explanation of the birds and bees as it happens in corn fields because you shouldn’t have to learn about it on the streets.

The Lavender Moon begins Monday September 2, 2024, when it reaches New Phase at 9:57 P.M. EDT. First visibility of this Moon will be among the stars of Virgo, and for the naked-eye observer will most likely occur Wednesday, September 4, 2024.

I should say hello but I’m in a hurry. She’s probably in a hurry, too, and there’s no need to bother. She hasn’t seen me yet and I can let it go.

Even if you’ve never heard of lenticels, I’m sure you’ve seen them. How can I be sure? Well, I think you’ve probably seen apples, potatoes and birch trees. Their lenticels are right there on the surface, out in the open, on display. Let’s start with the birch tree.

Each month the moon greets every planet out there among the stars, but it won’t always shed the same amount of light on these meetings from one month to the next, so it’s easy to imagine that the Moon is modulating our experience as it goes.

The astrological omens for the coming week suggest that now is the time for sloughing off the dead weight and for moving out of stagnant situations.

As far as discernible historical record goes, the first people to divide the heavens into what later became known as the zodiac were the ancient Persians, over eight thousand years ago.

And there it was, an enormous old horsehair chair that was just the sort of thing my daughter could curl up in with a book.

I’m a big nature lover, but I’m still grossed out by cockroaches in buildings. This little cockroach, however, wandering across my picnic table was much less alarming. Only about a third of an inch long and pale tan.

As I lock the door, I stand on the porch for a moment and stare at the small back yard with its spruce trees and English ivy. Each time I leave is an opportunity to notice and to cherish—not only this house but this life, my life—right here, right now.