by Miki Marks
Humans search for meanings and connections. This is how we try and make sense of the world – from ‘red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning’ to waiting if it rains or not on St. Swithin’s day. There have always been seers, prophets, fortune tellers, and oracles. We look for sign and portents, we want to know what lies ahead. Some sayings are based on close observation of nature and some perhaps not. So here is a saying we might test for accuracy: January 22nd is St Vincent’s Day – the patron of vintners and vinegar makers
Remember on St Vincent’s day,
if the sun its beams display
Tis a token bright and clear
of prosperous weather all the year.
Towards the end of January and a sign that the year is turning towards the light, we begin to see the hazel catkins lengthening. They can grow to between 2 and 3 cms long. Hazel or cobnuts do very well in Cranleigh – and there are always seedlings in my flowerbeds, from nuts probably buried by squirrels. The catkins are the male flowers and during a warm spell in February or March, they shed pollen on the female flowers, which are tiny red tassels found on the same tree or shrub. Hazel was widely grown and coppiced for long flexible stems, used in fencing and divining rods. I have seen diviners in action and find the whole business most mysterious.
Another mystery. My garden is open at the bottom to the brook and I am used to seeing a variety of poo in my garden; a bit like a visiting card. Recently I spotted one ‘present’ I didn’t recognise. I know fox, dog and cat, all unpleasantly smelly. This was too large for squirrel. This was different in colour and did not smell. Taking a close look I could see seeds, strands of grass and what might have been remains of insects. Hedgehog, I thought, hooray. Only after doing some googling on poo, I couldn’t match what I had found with the images on line; wrong colour and too long. I wish I had photographed it, but by the time I had finished examining it, it was a bit of a mess and ended up in the compost. I am hoping this mystery creature will visit again.
In January we might see the first primrose, living up to its name’s likely Latin origin prima rosa or first rose. Like the hazel, the primrose has two sorts of flowers and their sticky seeds are produced only when the pollen of one sort of flower is transferred to the other, on the same plant. If they bloom too early, when there are few pollinating insects about the flowers do not produce seed. Shakespeare in The Winter’s Tale wrote of ‘the pale primroses that die unmarried.’ Ants are very attracted to the food stored in the sticky seeds and carry them off, so that colonies of primroses spread.
If the weather warms up sufficiently a hedgehog might rouse itself to forage for food in the evenings. Honey bees are increasingly active in their hives and a peacock butterfly might be spotted basking on a warm, sunny wall.
Apparently scientists have made a significant step in understanding the genetic mechanism behind seasonal behaviours in mammals, including hibernation and migration. It is down to a single gene called Dio3 – this gene is present in all mammals and is critical for setting the internal seasonal clock and needs to be active to initiate winter dormancy. The closer to the poles, the more active this gene is in mammals. Until now there has been no functional evidence of the biological mechanisms behind the timings of seasonal behaviours. Cold weather is not a problem, within reason, for birds or other warm-blooded animals providing they can get enough food to keep their inner furnace well stoked up to offset heat loss and maintain the warmth of vital organs. Keep your bird feeders stocked up.
Gardens are havens for wild life. It is therefore depressing that the RHS’s State of Gardening report indicates the 7.5 million square meters of domestic gardens are now covered in plastic lawns, and more than half of Britain’s front garden space and a third of back garden space is paved over. This greatly reduces the potential to prevent flooding, and to help wildlife and store carbon, which is necessary to fight climate change. It is very disappointing that planning regulations are being relaxed – despite campaigns by environmental groups. It is apparently hard for us to relinquish the belief that nature is a resource to be exploited, and that this exploitation comes without consequences for us.
We act as if we are somehow outside nature.
There are a number of local groups doing their bit for the environment – check out https://cranleighclimate.org.uk and become involved. Happy New Year!
