December 2023

Winter showed its true colours for a moment at the start of the month, surprising us with hard frosts. The car doors became frozen, unable to open, and fingers aching from cold. Minus 4.7 up the road at Culdrose, not quite the minus 12.5 experienced in Sutherland but cold enough to warrant getting out my old fashined hand warmers, (lit charcoal sticks in a metal case, still sold up in Scotland). The joy of having these in a pocket, words fail me but I recommend them to anyone who suffers with cold hands. Just looking for something similar for the feet.

The frosts left after a couple of days and then we got the rain with disturbingly warm days - 12.4 degrees at Exeter on christmas day.  According to the MET, it was one of the wettest months, one of the warmest months and one of the dullest months and it ended with Storm Gerit, the third storm in December. The sun did visit but only in flashes between rain storms, like stage lighting being switched on and off across the land. Bright, blinding light.

Walking down the bottom of the field now requires wellingtons, the land has become very boggy and the river has risen considerably and left debris in its wake. It runs fast and noisy, bubbling and foaming over the rocks and fallen trees. Flattened grasses mark the route of the flash flooding and the dead leaves of the Gunnera plants lie on the ground, like giant pieces of torn brown paper. As I move up the hill the Daffodil fields above us come into view and are already a haze of yellow. There are random clumps of runaway Daffodils in the hedges, for many people this is a joyous sight but unfortunately there is a downside to their presence.  Daffodils are now highly manipulated by farmers for their size, colour and shape and over the years this has caused the loss of the fragrance, nectar and pollen that feeds insects, unlike the native daffodil. The increase in cross pollination from the flower industry has aided the decline of the native Daffodil. There are now only three sites left in the UK in which the native Daffodil still flourishes; the Lake District, Devon and the Black Mountains.

In addition to the loss of food for insects, daffodils take up a lot of space and once they have established they grow so close to each other they exclude all other plants, adding to a loss of diversity in our wildflowers. And now I'm on a roll, I'll add the final black mark against the Daffodil; the high use of pesticides to keep the ground weed free and the bulbs free of basal rot.  Generally pesticide use is much higher on cut flowers than on other agriculture products as they are not foodstuffs. Although there appears to be evaluations of regulations regarding pesticide use, there is no established criteria for its applications. The environmental impact of herbicides and pesticides is now well documented with evidence showing contamination of water sources, decreased fertility in the soil and negative effects on birds, fish, beneficial insects etc as well as impacting on human health. Maybe not such a joyous sight after all.

Back to the field.  Although Winter is with us at the moment, it has not stopped the new growth of plants in the field.  Various members of the Ragwort family are busy sporting lush new green leaves in abundance. An array of young and lively Thistles are already forming large rosettes of new growth and Alexanders are creating sturdy colonies which decorate the hedgerows. There is the odd, stray Dandelion, accompanied by the ever present Pink Campions, smaller flowers but still present and plenty of new leaves forming in large clusters all over the field and hedges.  Sheep's Sorrel has also put in an early appearance, looking strong and vigorous. Something to add to the salad bowl if you want a hint of a tart, slightly sour note.

And on the telegraph wires the Rooks gather, extremely noisy and very sociable. Hundreds of them fly past in the early morning and back in early evening, stopping for a while on the wires to chat with their neighbours. I have been trying to identify the difference between the Crow and Rook, hard when they are flying overhead but I was given a clue by my neighbour which I will pass on, "a crow in a crowd is a rook and a rook on its own is a crow".  Job done on the identification problem.

(Information on daffodils and pesticides provided by: Friends of The Earth, researchgate.net, sciencedirect.com and naturphilosophie.co.uk).