by Miki Marks
Sumer is icumen in. Loud sing cuckou!
Groweth seed and bloweth meed. And springeth the wode now. Cuckou!
These are the words of a famous 13th century English round and summer is icumen in this month. June 1st is the meteorological date and the 21st usually taken to be the astronomical date – marked by the summer solstice when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. I wasn’t sure what meteorological meant in this context – according to Wiki it is “relating to a branch of science concerned with the processes and phenomena of the atmosphere – especially as a means of forecasting the weather.”
The trees round here are looking their best. I got to my favourite place: Wild and Green. I sit up on the first floor, by the windows, drinking a good coffee and taking in the view. A brew with a view! From the first floor vantage point I look down on the much loved maples and statuesque limes on the Common. There are glimpses of the Surrey Hills and of at least five of the outstanding trees in Cranleigh. The Cedar of Lebanon in St Nic’s graveyard. Two Monterrey pines and a Redwood in the direction of the Leisure Centre, and a large and airy conifer on the Horsham Road past the Obelisk. A fly-past by a red kite never fails to raise my spirits – given that the bird came so near extinction.
The writer and naturalist Richard Mabey wrote in his Flora Britannica in 1993 that an important component of what makes a place ‘home’ are the local mature trees. That is certainly true in my case. One of the reasons we bought this house was the view from the back bedroom window. The green hills in the distance, and a number of large trees – especially a group of cedars in the council cemetery. There have sadly been some losses; a large, mature redwood which was home to bats, has gone. A big Scots pine and an oak. Trees give a sense of place and some are dearly loved. The outcry at the mindless vandalism perpetrated by two men who cut down the Sycamore Gap tree, by Hadrian’s Wall, gives some indication of the deep attachment people can have to trees.
There is a hidden gem quite close to us – Cucknells Wood, in Shamley Green. It was recently in The Times’ list of 20 best place to see bluebells. Later on the orchids will be out. The site belongs to The Surrey Wildlife Trust and they have just installed new paths to make the walks easier as it can get very muddy. Adders have also been spotted there and I was going to write about them when a friend showed me a little video of a large grass snake she saw at Elmbridge, and what I discovered about these snakes was most interesting. The females can grow to over six foot long – making them the largest reptiles in Britain. It is not venomous like the adder, and perhaps on account of being unable to poison its opponents it has come up with a number of cunning dodges to put off a predator. Firstly, it plays dead and produces a nosebleed for added effect. Secondly it tries to disgust its foe by producing a stinking smell from its anal glands. Thirdly it will try to deter the aggressor by hissing and headbutting. Should this not work, its final strategy is to be violently sick – and as Dixe Wills remarks in his amusing book The Wisdom of Nature “no doubt the Grass Snake is counting on the difficulty its adversaries may have maintaining their self-respect while eating a puking animal”. Sadly the Grass Snake has many predators including herons, owls and foxes. Presumably hunger overcomes disgust.
The excellent nature organisation Plantlife is urging us all to make room in our gardens for wildflowers, also known as weeds. Particularly welcome in my garden is Devil’s-bit scabious, succisa pratensis. It is a most attractive plant and grows happily in various habitats in the British Isles. Long, slender stems rise up from a flat base of leaves. The flowers are a blue to lilac colour. Like the daisy, the flowerhead is made up of a number of flowerlets. Caterpillars of several butterflies and moths use this plant as a welcome food source. Its curious folk name derives from the story that the Devil was so furious at the success of this plant in curing all sorts of ailments that he bit away part of the root, hoping to end its good works. According to this legend, he left the plant with an abruptly shortened root – which it has today. The plant was principally used to treat skin conditions like scabies – hence its ‘scabiosa’ name. It can also be used in the case of snakebite. Useful to know should you encounter an angry adder.
