“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” wrote John Keats in 1819, a year which had a beautiful long autumn, following three years of miserable weather and harvests after the eruption of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia in 1815 – the greatest volcanic eruption for over 300 years.
Not so mellow round here, however, after the drought. Most of the apples are much smaller than usual. But some things are the same. The swallows have left the open barns and flown south, although they seem to have lingered a little longer this year. We have just removed the black and white mounds they left behind. A small price to pay for the privilege of having them nearby for a few months.
Flowers that choose to flower, or remain in flower, during September – whether in garden, wood or field – provide welcome late splashes of colour. In the field next to us a patch of toadflax has appeared, with its narrow blue-green leaves and yellow snapdragon-like flowers, spreading from another field. But “never be seduced by Toadflax,” warns Geoffrey Grigson, “never allow it in the garden. It spreads incessantly.”
This year, September is also a season of yet more public consultations. The County Council’s (presumably) final consultation on what it hopes will improve the A40 is drawing to a close. Meanwhile, the District Council’s consultation on the unhelpful changes that the Planning Inspector has made to the Area Action Plan for Salt Cross Garden Village is, at the time of writing, about to open for six weeks.
A friend of mine in Eynsham recently drew my attention to a book of essays by the American ‘agrarian’ writer, thinker and farmer, Wendell Berry. I had come across some of his poems before but not his prose. It is highly relevant to what is about to happen to the north and west of Eynsham, because it explores what is valuable about the countryside around us, and worth preserving.
At one point he describes an encounter he had with a hawk which was made possible by “the conjunction of the small pasture and its wooded borders, of open hunting ground and the security of trees”. And he praises “the powerful attractions of a diversified landscape, both to wildlife and to humans”, the edges and margins where different kinds of habitat meet, and where biodiversity is particularly rich.
He explains how important it is for the “human economy” to be kept to the right scale in relation to the “natural economy”, so that both humans and nature can thrive, and gives two examples to “suggest” what he means: the difference between amplified and unamplified music in the countryside, or between the sound of a motorboat and the sound of oars. “A proper human sound is one that allows other sounds to be heard. A properly scaled human economy or technology allows a diversity of other creatures to thrive.”
One hopes that our County and District Councillors, and the developers of the land north and west of Eynsham, and of the A40, will keep this very much in mind.