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MassAcorn: A co-operative resource network for the Westfield and Deerfield watersheds of western Massachusetts.
April 2011: Sky Dance Print E-mail

I owned my farm for two years before learning that the sky dance is to be seen over my woods every evening in April and May. Since we discovered it, my family and I have been reluctant to miss even a single performance.

The show begins on the first warm evening in April at exactly 6:50 p.m. The curtain goes up one minutes later each day until 1 June, when the time is 7:50. This sliding scale is dictated by vanity, the dancer demanding a romantic light intensity of exactly 0.05 foot-candles. Do not be late, and sit quietly, lest he fly away in a huff.... 

Extracted from "Land Ethic" by Aldo Leopold. 1947.