August, Golden End of Summer
Roman Emperor Augustus decided that this month would be the one to be named after him - the month in which he had achieved most success. This is an august month: dignified and impressive!
We’re into the last month of summer (sorry). Across the landscape, fields are cut to golden stubble, hedgerows and verges stuffed with yellowing grasses; rosehips and blackberries ripen. The lush greens of spring have faded, tree canopies darkened and dulled. Nature’s palette offers softly muted greens and golds. But there are more wildflowers to come- the bumblebees and other pollinators continue to gorge on summer nectar.
Bursts of pink thistle pompoms and stands of purple willowherb dominate verges. Late August will bring a transformation of colour into millions of floating seed fairies, magically dispersed on a huge scale with the help of the late summer breeze.
Harebells, the wildflower of August
Take a path through the heather on Park Hall Moor
Heather
On the moors it’s time for the heather to take a star turn. Heather is also a heath flowering plant- hence the name. Bell heather blooms first, with its fat little bell-shaped flowers, much brighter in colour than slender Ling, which is the later, paler flowering heather. The name Ling is thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘lig’, meaning ‘fire' – heather was used for fuel back in the day. Whatever you do this month, make sure you go for a heather walk. Wander across the purple moors and just breathe in the honeyed scent - no wonder the bees love it so much!
Harebells
My favourite August wildflower is the harebell. So delicate, its paper-thin petals tremble on the end of the slenderest stem. These fairy bells or witches’ thimbles remind me of my Grandma. On childhood summer holiday visits, we wandered up into the Mendip hills and sat amongst the harebells. Grandma was a tiny little old lady, with watery harebell-blue eyes, a gentle, trembling smile and the softest, palest skin. She lived to the ripe old age of 98.
My Grandma and Auntie Mirry
One of the many wildflower paintings by my Grandma
Wildflowers were her passion, she painted hundreds of watercolours and sent many as birthday cards. Her collection of 378 pressed, illustrated and neatly labelled wildflowers is housed in Bristol Museum. The ‘Gladys Tuck Herbarium’ is an environmental snapshot of the ecology of the Bristol area in the 1950s. She would have been proud as punch to know that.
Nature has a clever way of connecting us to people we’ve loved and lost - we carry them with us, our spirits are lifted.
This month’s nature task
Harebells continue to flower into Autumn, providing another source of nectar for bumblebees before the Queens go into hibernation. They’ll hibernate until early spring, then emerge in March looking for nectar. Those early spring flowers will be important too. I want to provide better sources of food for pollinators next year from our house and through New Smithy. The job to do this month is to cut back grasses along our lane verges, clear some patches of soil and tread in some yellow rattle seeds. Grasses tend to take over and drown out other plants, but yellow rattle has a way of dealing with this and can help keep them at bay. Once the yellow rattle has established itself, other wildflowers will have a much better chance of success- and so will the bumblebees.
Later in autumn I’ll cut back the grasses again and tread in some other wildflower seeds. They all need the cold winter temperatures to help them germinate. In spring, once those grasses start growing and dominating again, I’ll cut them back once more to give the yellow rattle a chance to get going. That’s my plan. I’m hoping to get some of the neighbours to help me out, it could turn into a little neighbourhood project!
Yellow Rattle finds a way through the grasses
Awareness days
August is a month of national days of holiday spirit. There are special days for chocolate chip cookies, beer, Bakewell Tart, prosecco, cupcakes, Pinot Noir, potatoes, bacon and burgers! I guess you just take your pick and indulge?
August 13th is Left Handers Day, raising awareness of the bloody awkwardness of being a left hander in a right-handed world. It is awkward but you learn to adapt by finding weird ways around. On 13th, try with your left hand to unlock your front door, zip up your coat, write with an ink pen and then flick through a magazine. It’s awkward!
On the positive side, left-handers’ brains make them more creative, independent, rebellious; we are (apparently) higher intelligent, logical thinkers and so easy to get along with- I’ll take that. Here’s to the other left-handers out there!
2 comments
Kate Hunter
August 8, 2021 at 3:24 pm
Love this months blog – so lovely to see that photo and some of grandma’s art work
Clare
August 8, 2021 at 4:35 pm
So interesting and beautifully written as always.