{"id":9414,"date":"2014-02-01T01:10:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-01T06:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=9731"},"modified":"2014-01-19T20:32:13","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T01:32:13","slug":"seeing-the-signs-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2014\/02\/01\/seeing-the-signs-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Divining the Weather: Will Winter This Year be Kind or Cruel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There has been an ongoing argument among some of my Facebook friends about the Banded Wooly Caterpillar and if this animal really can predict the weather of the winter to come.\u00a0 A Wooly Caterpillar is black with a middle band that is brown or tannish.\u00a0 If the brown band is narrow, the coming winter will be harsh.\u00a0 Naturally, if the band is wide, it will be a mild winter.\u00a0 I have to admit I have never seen any of these caterpillars, so I cannot comment on whether these animals actually do predict the weather.\u00a0 But having been watching nature and the weather for most of my life, I can make a few educated guesses.\u00a0 I do believe that where I live, Western New winter will be harsh.\u00a0 Naturally, if the band is wide, it will be a mild winter.\u00a0 I have to admit I have never seen any of these caterpillars, so I cannot comment on whether these animals actually do predict the weather. \u00a0Apparently, there is a professor at UMass who, after years of study, says that they are actually commenting on the previous<\/em> winter.\u00a0\u00a0 I find the subject fascinating.<\/p>\n

Having been watching nature and the weather for most of my life, I can make a few educated guesses.\u00a0 I do believe that where I live, Western New York, is going to see a colder, snowier winter this year.\u00a0 These are my observations:<\/p>\n

Moss.\u00a0 When I was a little girl, my mother told me that if the moss grew thick, that it would be a hard winter.\u00a0 Earlier in the summer, I was hiking in the woods, and sat under a tree to rest a while.\u00a0 The moss growing there was so thick and lush, it was like a pillow.\u00a0 Everywhere I went this summer, I was struck by the lushness of the ground cover.<\/p>\n

Another thing was the amazing amount of acorns everywhere.\u00a0 Sitting in my tree stand a few weeks ago, listening to them drop, it was like listening to rain.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like Mother Nature is providing for the deer and squirrels and turkeys before she gets really tough with all of them.\u00a0 A single oak tree can feed dozens of animals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been too warm for the geese to move, but that\u2019s another sign \u2026 if the migration starts early.\u00a0 But since it\u2019s been so warm, you won\u2019t see geese moving until this week or probably next week, when the skies will be filled (I have to say that it\u2019s one of my favorite things to see, geese moving across the sky).<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t yet harvested a deer, but my friend has, and he told me that the doe he brought down was heavy with fat.\u00a0 I have been hunting for many years and I can tell you that when the deer are carry an extra layer of fat, it will be a cold, hard winter.\u00a0 Maybe we\u2019ll even have a blizzard!\u00a0 We haven\u2019t had a good blizzard in years.<\/p>\n

Another thing are spiders and bees.\u00a0 If you see lots of spiders or spider activity (webs and web-making), then there will be a harsh winter.\u00a0 Also, if you kill a spider, it will rain.\u00a0 Heavy bee activity in the fall also foretells a harsh winter, because bees are trying to get all the pollen they can before they are unable to do anything at all.<\/p>\n

I know people who will laugh at all this, and say that these signs are \u201cold wives tales\u201d or just plain silliness.\u00a0 But one person\u2019s silliness is another one\u2019s wisdom.\u00a0 So who knows?\u00a0 Only time will tell.\u00a0 Come January, when the snow is flying, I\u2019ll be here \u2026 to say, \u201ctold ya so\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.almanac.com\/content\/predicting-winter-weather-woolly-bear-caterpillars<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/epawablogs.com\/the-true-winter-prognosticator-nature\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Divining the Weather: Will Winter This Year be Kind or Cruel?   There has been an ongoing argument among some of my Facebook friends about the Banded Wooly Caterpillar and if this animal really can predict the weather of the winter to come.\u00a0 A Wooly Caterpillar is black with a middle band that is brown or tannish.\u00a0 If the brown band is narrow, the coming winter will be harsh.\u00a0 Naturally, if the band is wide, it will be a mild winter.\u00a0 I have to admit I have never seen any of these caterpillars, so I cannot comment on whether these animals actually do predict the weather.\u00a0 But having been watching nature and the weather for most of my life, I can make a few educated guesses.\u00a0 I do believe that where I live, Western New winter will be harsh.\u00a0 Naturally, if the band is wide, it will be a mild winter.\u00a0 I have to admit I have never seen any of these caterpillars, so I cannot comment on whether these animals actually do predict the weather. \u00a0Apparently, there is a professor at UMass who, after years of study, says that they are actually commenting on the previous winter.\u00a0\u00a0 I find the subject fascinating. Having been watching nature and the weather for most of my life, I can make a few educated guesses.\u00a0 I do believe that where I live, Western New York, is going to see a colder, snowier winter this year.\u00a0 These are my observations: Moss.\u00a0 When I was a little girl, my mother told me that if the moss grew thick, that it would be a hard winter.\u00a0 Earlier in the summer, I was hiking in the woods, and sat under a tree to rest a while.\u00a0 The moss growing there was so thick and lush, it was like a pillow.\u00a0 Everywhere I went this summer, I was struck by the lushness of the ground cover. Another thing was the amazing amount of acorns everywhere.\u00a0 Sitting in my tree stand a few weeks ago, listening to them drop, it was like listening to rain.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like Mother Nature is providing for the deer and squirrels and turkeys before she gets really tough with all of them.\u00a0 A single oak tree can feed dozens of animals. It\u2019s been too warm for the geese to move, but that\u2019s another sign \u2026 if the migration starts early.\u00a0 But since it\u2019s been so warm, you won\u2019t see geese moving until this week or probably next week, when the skies will be filled (I have to say that it\u2019s one of my favorite things to see, geese moving across the sky). I haven\u2019t yet harvested a deer, but my friend has, and he told me that the doe he brought down was heavy with fat.\u00a0 I have been hunting for many years and I can tell you that when the deer are carry an extra layer of fat, it will be a cold, hard winter.\u00a0 Maybe we\u2019ll even have a blizzard!\u00a0 We haven\u2019t had a good blizzard in years. Another thing are spiders and bees.\u00a0 If you see lots of spiders or spider activity (webs and web-making), then there will be a harsh winter.\u00a0 Also, if you kill a spider, it will rain.\u00a0 Heavy bee activity in the fall also foretells a harsh winter, because bees are trying to get all the pollen they can before they are unable to do anything at all. I know people who will laugh at all this, and say that these signs are \u201cold wives tales\u201d or just plain silliness.\u00a0 But one person\u2019s silliness is another one\u2019s wisdom.\u00a0 So who knows?\u00a0 Only time will tell.\u00a0 Come January, when the snow is flying, I\u2019ll be here \u2026 to say, \u201ctold ya so\u201d.   References http:\/\/www.almanac.com\/content\/predicting-winter-weather-woolly-bear-caterpillars http:\/\/epawablogs.com\/the-true-winter-prognosticator-nature\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}