"New year's day is every man's birthday.
Charles lamb (1775-1834)

Mid-Atlantic Regional Weather Watch: Heavy snow (1,2,3), colder with some flurries (4,5,6,7). Fair and very cold (8,9) with more light snow (10,11). Windy and cold (12,13,14,15) with yet more flurries (16,17). Fair and very cold again (18,19) with snow and stormy weather (20,21,22).

Full Moon: January's full moon will occur on the 30th at 1:18am. It was originally named the hunger moon because many native Americans everywhere found food so scarce at this time. It has also been referred to as the wolf moon because many wolf packs boldly wandered closer to villages and camps hoping to find something to eat.

Special notes: yet another year has passed and we here at the almanack hope that the holidays were wonderful and that everyone has a happy, safe, and prosperous new year. It is our 214th year of continuous publication and we are proud of our heritage and will continue to provide interesting and useful information for every day living, spiritual and artistic inspiration, and those dead-on-accurate weather forecasts!

Holidays: Civil rights leader martin Luther King, jr. was born on January 15, 1929. In 2010, the official day set aside for his remembrance (the third Monday of January) falls on January 18th. Remember to honor him on his day and reflect on the great movement he began and how tragically he was taken from us.

The garden: begin planning your spring gardening activities during the remaining winter nights. Buy an extra calendar when they go on sale. Keep one for garden planning and scheduling of mulching, fertilizing, potting, and plantings. Collect nursery and seed catalogs now and remember to place your orders early to get the best selection and to avoid backordering. Try to time all your gardening and lawn activities with anticipated sales at local merchants. Spoil those houseplants every chance you get!

J. Grubers' Thought for Today's Living:

"The next twelve months offer us a world of promise; it all depends on each one of us and how much we are willing to give of ourselves to help make it a better world"