Low Light

In a previous post I touched on the winter light levels in the churchyard and a couple of weeks ago we had the Winter Solstice the point in the year where daylight is shortest, from here on the days get longer, more hours of daylight although to me the first few weeks actually seem shorter. In these dark winter days it can seem never to get fully light, days of low light sometimes though the day starts crisp and bright and there is another kind of low light, that bright sunshine often in the early morning tinged with dawns amber glow. It was one such morning when I was a passenger being driven around Church Street South bordering the churchyard and I was amazed by the spectacle of low intense sun beams illuminating the vertical faces of several gravestones, all gravestones face east in a churchyard so the full impact of the low light illuminated one particular gravestone, every detail in remarkable clarity, the angular clear cut script, the mossy surface all illuminated in a warm light, quite spectacular, quite special.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and a peaceful 2026

Leaves

Recently I was given half a dozen back issues of various gardening magazines one dated November 2024 contained an article where two people, an ecological gardener and a lawn expert argue for or against removing dead autumn leaves from our lawns. The lawn expert understandably was against leaving leaves on lawns as it can suffocate and kill the grass however he did acknowledge that leaves excel as compost. The case put for leaving leaves in place to break down was most interesting and informative. Leaf drop is an ancient adaptation first appearing around 100 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period so this 'mechanism' is perhaps the oldest carbon capture on our planet as soil can hold 30 percent more carbon if autumn leaves are left to rot, the resulting carbon feeds the soil food Web particularly mycorrhizal fungus which in turn improves the trees ability to take up water, also the layer of rotting material helps insulate the soil in winter this in turn results in a better soil structure and helps hibernating insects from drowning-insects required as a food source for ground feeding birds. Of course we clear the leaves from paths and gravestones bagging them in jute bags piled to rot down. The result is a fantastic environment for worms who reward us with our own pile of lovely compost to use when planting up. A secondary advantage is zero packaging and zero road miles for delivery.

Wishing everyone a peaceful Christmas.

A Wilder Churchyard

 

In the early part of 2024 we were approached by a filmmaker who was looking for a small project to film, the driving point of this was you did not have to have a huge costly project in hand to make a contribution to nature conservation and so our churchyard was selected as a subject to film. A few members of our team were interviewed on camera, the interviews were conducted inside the church, there was no common agreed script or response those interviewed answered giving their honest view on the project. The result was as a whole an interesting perspective. 

The film is fifteen minutes long. 

The link to the film is here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzNo9hvUh2M

Going back to your roots

That sounds very horticultural but in fact it was an opportunity to revisit our ongoing vision for the churchyard and explain to a complete stranger what we are trying to achieve, what our goals are and where we are along that pathway to date. The stranger was in fact a journalist from Holland and they had picked up our involvement from the organisation Caring For God's Acre, who liase and offer help to churchyards in the form of suggestions of how to plan and monitor what you propose to undertake, invaluable in getting a project underway, focusing on a week by week seasonal guide so everything flows in a logical fashion. They also advise on looking at the Heritage of the churchyard and Caring for that, this we do cleaning and uncovering graves that have been either partly or wholly hidden for years. It's a sobering fact that if all the churchyards in the UK did something however small towards this we would end up with a conjoined area approaching the size of a small National Park.

This weekend saw the usual clearing up activities and also the planting of Wild Garlic a brilliant plant for early in the year pollinators.

Rain

It has been a very hot and dry summer, nearly empty or very low reservoirs and browned grass bare testimony to this so today on a rainy  Sunday afternoon I decided to visit the churchyard and stand in the quite tranquil space to listen to the rain pattering through the tree canopy, to also take stock of how things have fared, I was pleasantly surprised at how resilient plants are and how in the low light of the afternoon the Calendula planted in between the gravestones really pop the orange so bright against the stone. In an area nearby a couple of seasons ago we planted Sedums, these have really established a plant more than capable of surviving a dry spell and today I was pleasantly surprised to see their lovely shades of green foliage and pink flower heads flat perfect landing platforms for late pollinators.

Of course we collect rainwater in our water butt system meaning we have been able to water the pots outside the church porch. Water that would go straight into the drainage system. 

Picture Perfect

Recently I was away in Mid Wales for a break., a very rural part of the UK with a myriad of back roads and lanes only carrying light occasional local traffic and so there was ample opportunity to stand and admire the hedgerows a collage of various wild species all woven together with Hawthorn and other shrubbery in front wonderful verge and sometimes ditch, needless to say there was the constant presence of insects flying from flower head to flowerhead searching out pollen. It was this standing observing and appreciating that made me think of our churchyard and how often do we stop and stand to appreciate it. I have heard many professional gardeners on TV and radio say just that, take time to stand, absorb and appreciate. Then yesterday along came a dozen pictures into my inbox taken in the churchyard by a team member that capture perfectly the wonderful collage of colours against the stonework and railings. The beauty of these pictures is also seeing the churchyard through someone else's perspective. I make no apologies for including four of these lovely pictures this month. 

Insects

Two recent things brought insects into focus for me again, one was a trip to Lincolnshire in May where the weather driving down was very warm and on arrival I observed the the front of the car had more dead bugs on than I had seen for years. The second was the return at home of Swifts screaming around the house in an aerial display that would not disgrace the red arrows. Two indicators that we have more insects about in general than recent years. Swifts feed in flight on flying insects such as hoverflies. There is a national movement to put up more Swift boxes and even incorporate swift habitats in the form of special bricks in new builds. Old Glossop Residents Association who we work closely with are very keen on providing Swift habitats locally. Hoverflies feed on nectar as do other insects but unlike most insects they need to feed on flatter flower heads or Umbellifers broad flowerheads made up of lots of little flowers like Cow Parsley. So Umbellifers are on the planting list! Finally it was interesting to note that Chris Packham  on Springwatch this year remarked that the insect population was up. All good news and fingers crossed it is not a blip.