May arrives with temperatures that still qualify as spring but the length and angle of the solar lighting says, full summer. With Earth’s northern axis revolving ever closer toward maximum summer solstice tilt, a little more sunlight shines around the top of the globe every day. Just a reminder; while it may feel like spring, summertime sun awareness and protection are required.
The lighting in the forest this month is also different than in the summer season, brighter, fresher, the mallow green of young, hopeful leaves. While our April showers were perhaps less than hoped for, or needed (much of Louisa is listed as ‘abnormally dry’) trees are slurping the ground water that is there, mixing it with the abundant CO2 in our atmosphere and with a little photosynthetic magic turning it all into new leaves and wood. One of Earth’s most efficient forms of carbon storage.
The process continues throughout the summer but warmer temperatures and drier times will deepen the green. Various leaf nibblers, storm winds and other challenges presented by the planet makes the job of being a leaf, always a temp position, ever more difficult. Get out and enjoy the lush, vibrant, late spring world before summer’s heat rushes in.
May’s long hours of daylight means star gazing hours are much reduced, there are less than 10 hours of actual darkness for any evening this month. It is still worth venturing out for a peek, maybe tonight(1st), when a thin crescent moon will lie low in the west near even lower Jupiter. By the 3rd the moon is a thick crescent just above Mars. The moon will revisit the Red Planet again on the 31st. The Full Flower Moon is on the 12th. May is a good month to notice how Earth’s tilt allows the sun to ride high across the daytime sky but means the moon slides rather low through the evening sky.
Early risers, with a good eastern view, can see brilliant Venus and much dimmer Saturn shift about all month long. The two will be closest on the 1st, slowly separating over the month. The waning crescent moon will visit the pair predawn on the 22nd and 23rd (the trio will NOT look like a smiley face as social media may promise). Our sun’s background stars change from Aries to Taurus on the 15th. The Big Dipper will spend May nights slowly rotating, upside down, around the northern sky.
After last year’s banner lady slipper display, this year’s slipper show has been, perhaps, a little below average. A colder, longer winter…fewer April showers…on a planet where there is nothing but change and an infinite list of factors driving the change, noticing and enjoying the changes works fine for me. The dogwoods and wild azaleas may have faded but there are others waiting their turn to dazzle with blooms. Right now, my few fringe trees are waving their delicate blooms and the rose breasted grosbeaks have stopped in for their annual visit.
While someone will state the obvious today, “Can you believe it’s already May” we all know that’s how it works; time rolls on! Local students and teachers will soon be out of their classrooms, mothers will be celebrated and remembered as will those that paid the ultimate price in service of our country. May, the unofficial gateway to summer, is here and it beckons us all to get out and enjoy our planet. Just don’t forget the sunscreen.
Oh yea...our poser president is still a f...ing moron..No change there..
Today On Earth
Same shot...still gorgeous..
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