Category: tradition

Have we had a good summer?

Posted on by andy.winfield
By Andy Winfield

Weather symbol for rain, sun, cloud, and storms.

We keep records of rain here in the Botanic Garden. We have a little rain collection pot with measurements on the side, and record whenever there is any rain, every day. We have accurate records for here of the rainfall from each day of the last twenty years. The total rainfall for the year so far is 329mm, while last year up to this point (September 7th)  692mm of rain had fallen. It’s been so dry, although right now I hear what sounds like all the water in the world angrily hurling itself at Bristol. Who knows what will happen next year; it feels like we’ve reached a stage of hyper unpredictability, the seasons just aren’t being the seasons I remember. Normal is changing. Is normal very wet weather, or very dry weather, or very windy weather? Gone are March winds and April showers, in are named storms and record temperatures.

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Toxic beauty

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Andy Winfield

Daffodils on a sunny bank.

The daffodil is symbolic to many of us; an innocent sign that winter and spring are side by side before walking away from each other taking the past and the future with them. The nodding yellow flowers of Narcissus can be bathed in sunshine or covered in snow, or, as I write this, blown horizontal by storm Eunice. It will weather all of this, experiencing everything that this time of year throws at it until it fades while other flowers form. Playing the role of seasonal buffer to perfection, the Narcissus must be able to withstand hungry bulb grubbers as well as the weather; it has become the icon it is through its attractiveness and its defences. (more…)

We are wildlife.

Posted on by andy.winfield

By Andy Winfield

Did you know that most birds stop singing in August and into September? They’ve done all their brooding and nesting and concentrate on building up strength for any future journey, no territory to mark. This month has always felt different, but I’ve never put my finger on why exactly; it can be as warm as any summer month, but the absence of that excited chatter and bustle of birds give it an atmosphere of its own. I think we’re all effected by the ebb and flow of the seasons, consciously or subconsciously the natural background ambience has an impact, from high summer to the darkest winter day. It’s taken a few hundred years for Western society to push nature to the boundaries, convincing ourselves we’re an exceptional species that is no longer part of natural systems, but the inescapable truth is that we are very much part of nature as much as the birds and the plants.
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Green energy in monstrous May

Posted on by andy.winfield

 

By Andy Winfield

 


May is monstrous, in a good way. An unstoppable surge of green enveloping everything, gunnera leaves fighting their way from the earth like zombies and the croziers of tree ferns unwinding like the kraken from sea water. This beast like energy is on our side, scaring away spring and winter back to the past where it now belongs, the power of nature is never felt more intensely. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “there is potent blood in modest May”. (more…)