Enter High Summer
It feels like there’s a suspension of activity in August. The mad roller coaster of life halts at the top. Things slow. It coincides with the end of the school year and the anticipation of going off-routine for a few weeks. But out in Nature there is a slowing too. The growing has stopped and now it’s all about fruiting, setting seed and harvest.
“The sky is blue, the fields in view,
All fading-green and yellow:
Come let us stray our gladsome way,
And view the charms o' Nature:
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn
And ilka* happy creature.”
- from ‘Now Westlin Winds’ by Robert Burns
(* ilka meaning every)
Lammas
This month sees the first of the ancient land-based harvest festivals on 1 August. Lammas celebrates the peak of summer when flowers and crops are in abundance. Although we tend to think of harvest starting in October, with the traditional school harvest festivals, if you look closely at the land now, you’ll spot the signs of abundance - we’re picking blackberries, the farmers are harvesting their crops, there are apples, pears, plums, damson and cobnuts ripening on the trees.
You can read more about Lammas if you scroll back in my nature journal to the article “Lammas. There’s still much more to come”.
Being Outdoors
In August I’m always preoccupied with being outside, enjoying the summer. Whether it’s soaking up the warmth, collecting fruits and colourful wildflowers, deadheading the flowers to keep the colour coming, seeking shade or sowing seeds for future seasons.
The draw to be outside is intensified by the knowledge that summer is slowly waning and Autumn is just around the corner. The tell tale signs appear too early for me - the touch of damp in the early morning, a golden tone in the light, shorter evenings and that distinctive early Autumn smell.
I’ll be embracing August outdoors as much as possible. Taking my lead from nature and trying to ease the pace!
My list of things to do in August includes:
Visit the beach
Eat ripe peaches and nectarines
Dry lavender flowers
Spot and photograph fields of hay bales
Sort and store my growing collection of pressed flowers
Dry sunflower heads
Eat outdoors as much as possible!
Sort my studio and display my work at The Colour Factory, in preparation for Hampshire Open Studios 26-29 August. I’m working on a collection of pressed flower labels. Come and see us if you can!
Prepare the new allotment ready to grow winter greens and plant fruit trees
Collect colourful wildflower petals - for future creative projects
