A year of staggeringly wet weather across most of Britain has caused all sorts of ups and downs for gardeners and farmers — but will it have an impact on the changing colours of the leaves on the trees around us?
Welcome to The Dawn Chorus, our daily round-up of news, nature and fun stuff. Each day, either James (Fisher, Deputy Digital Editor) or I (Toby Keel, Digital Editor) will bring you the big story in the world of Country Life, plus all sorts of things that you might otherwise have missed. We hope you enjoy it.
The run of warm, wet weather across Britain for the last year and a half has had huge knock-on consequences for flora, fauna and farming. Back in April, farmers warned of the consequence of the wettest winter in 150 years, and while some parts of Britain seem to have fared better than expected, the overall picture that’s emerging has been fairly grim.
For autumnal colour, however, the weather looks like it might have a positive effect. The National Trust has now released its report on how trees have fared in the wet winter and cool summer, saying that ‘hopes remain high for a dazzling colour display as trees have been able to hang on to their leaves for longer.’ As trees are expected to hang on to their leaves longer than normal, there could be an extended seasonal display which could go on for much longer than usual, so long as we don’t get storms, high winds or early frosts.
Colours are already beginning to change across the country. At Lanhydrock in Cornwall, a beech-lined avenue has begun its transformation, the lime tree avenue at Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire is ‘flecked with gold’, while at Winkworth Arboretum in Surrey, the red maples and glossy leaves of the sweet gum trees have started to turn from bright green to red all over. ‘Our large Acer saccharum (Canadian Maple) in Badgers Bowl has already started to turn red at the outer fringes, but I’ve seen this tree suspend its colour change during a period of warm weather before,’ says Winkworth’s head gardener, Graham Alderton.
Winkworth Arboretum, set in a valley within a rolling landscape in Surrey, is famed for its seasonal display.
‘The Acer rubrum’s (Red Maple) and the Liquidambar’s have started to turn from green to red, which is a sight to behold as the trees, for quite a period of time, are bright green and red all over.’
One area of Nature has thrived, however, with the Trust predicted ‘a season of spectacular fungi. There have already been sightings of the rare Waxcap fungi at Chirk Castle in North Wales, while Herefordshire’s Brockhampton estate has seen fly agaric, shaggy parasols and sulphur tuft fungi coming through.
Quiz of the Day
1) Which actor won his first Oscar at the age of 82, in 2012?
2) Which is the largest island in Europe?
3) Clout, casing, brad, finish and horseshoe are all types of what?
4) Sodium hypochlorite is commonly known as what?
5) What do the Spanish eat 12 of to usher in the New Year?
At a loose end this week?
Decorex, one of the country’s biggest interior design events, is on until October 9th. Head along, get some inspiration, and if you’re lucky you might bump in to our interiors guru, aka executive editor Giles Kime. And if you can’t get there? Next week’s issue of Country Life is an interiors special which shows off Giles’s recently-refurbished home in Hampshire.
At a loose end for five days next year?
Heritage railway company Steam Dreams runs a series of day trips involving original steam trains pulling refurbished period carriages — which is a wonderful way to spend a day, but an even better way to spend a week if you take their five-day trek across Wales, which which criss-crosses the Principality from Cardiff to Snowdonia.
What can you expect to find on board? Octavia Pollock took one of the company’s shorter journeys, and loved every minute.
The stillness of the English Channel
I don’t think I’ve ever been to Brighton without the wind being at least 20mph. And yet photographer Thomas Lee managed to get there a few weeks ago on a day so still that he captured this beautiful shot:
Brighton’s West Pier. Credit: @thomaslee.photography via Alamy
How to see that comet that people are talking about
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS mnight be one of the hardest comets to pronounce, but it’ll be one of the easiest to see in the night sky for several years. Last spotted in the skies above earth by Neanderthal Man some 80,000 years ago, its reappearance is imminent — and the good old Royal Astronomical Society have made this handy video to explain all you need to know about it.
Still on the market
This is genuinely one of the most beautiful houses we’ve featured at Country Life so far this year.
But — let’s face it — £4.5 million is quite a lot of change to rustle up, and thus Moor Hatches is still available.
And finally…
‘If a period of warm weather occurs towards the end of October, we call it St Luke’s Little Summer,’ wrote Lia Leendertz in her piece on the weather lore of October in last week’s Country Life. ‘Said to start some time about St Luke’s Day on October 18 and brought to an abrupt close by St Simon and St Jude — who share a feast day on October 28 — this brief period of calm, dry weather is the last hurrah before winter sets in.
‘St Simon and St Jude also pop up as summer-busters in a rhyme about Michaelmas daisies, which are always in flower on Michaelmas Day on September 29 — and, therefore, into the month of October:
The Michaelmas daisy, among dead weeds,
Blooms for St Michael’s valorous deeds.
And seems the last of flowers that stood,
Till the feast of St Simon and St Jude.
That’s all for today — we’ll be back tomorrow
Quiz of the Day: The Answers
1) Christopher Plummer
2) Great Britain (For those who said Greenland, though it’s a Danish territory, it is geographically and geologically considered part of North America)
3) Nail
4) Bleach
5) Grapes
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