April 2026 - On & Off Earth
April takes us fully into Spring where change rules and eye delights abound. Here on Earth, it is Dogwood season and our forests and yards are highlighted with their white (and pink) blooms bursting out everywhere. Off Earth, the Full Pink moon lights the sky all evening on April Fool’s Day. Opposite the moon, in the west and climbing a little higher and shining a little brighter every evening, Venus, our planetary neighbor, is now easy to spot as the Evening Star.
The dogwood’s glory will be short lived while Venus’ reign as the Evening Star will continue into the early Fall. Jupiter still shines above Venus amidst the slowly setting stars of winter. The moon, if NASA’s Artemis II plans hold, will be circled by astronauts for the first 10 days of the month, humans first visit in over 50 years.
April also offers, even if a little less dramatic, a slow and steady change from winter’s dull colors to spring’s mallow green. Leaves, tiny as a squirrel’s ear (a local expression) as April begins, will grow to near full size as the month proceeds. Those leaves, happy to feast on the two extra minutes of daylight every April day, will decrease sight lines through the forest but will create shade. We will all welcome that shade as April temperatures seem poised to finally erase this long winter’s chill. I’m ready for warm, we’ll see how long it is before we move on to hot.
But, hot, if this week’s forecast is correct, seems to be on the way. The World Meteorological Organization just released new data confirming the steady, rapid rise of temperatures on our home planet. World wide temperatures have been steadily increasing since the industrial revolution but a bigger jump, new records set and then surpassed each of the last 11 years, is, or should be, alarming.
Locally, the climate change reality is reflected in eight straight months of below average rainfall leaving us, still, in the moderate drought zone. Our pending water usage needs and plans do not seem to be meshing well with current reality. A reminder, NO BURNING is allowed until after 4pm in April and much caution should be exercised then!!
I just saw that Forest Bathing is back in the news. A rather simple idea, begun in the 1980’s in Japan to try and reduce work related stress in an increasingly crowded world, it encourages everyone to get out and spend some time in a quiet patch of woodland. It last popped up as one of the few, safe avenues of escape during the Covid debacle, when we all had lots of time on our hands.
Most of us, myself included, rarely have time for a multi-hour, sit and ponder, forest bath! But, I know that time spent in the woods does tend to wash away your troubles; the quiet, the solitude, the peace. Living in the woods, it’s easy for me to get in a forest ‘shower’ or two every day. Most of us (although our woodlands are rapidly shrinking) live close enough to a patch of trees and have an extra 15-30 minutes for a quick forest dip.
April is the perfect month to find your spot to get out and sneak in that quick, perhaps daily, forest shower. Take your phone, for safety, just don’t look at it, the peace the forest brings does not require an app.
Next month: A Blue Moon!
Big quake, 7.3, deep below Vanuatu..no tsunami issue. War stupidity, still got that..Today On Earth
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