August Almanac

August

August is the month for fun, for holidays by the sea, barbecues with friends and family, festivals, carnivals and day trips to all kinds of interesting places. Across gardens and countryside everything is ripening all at once and there is a sense that summer is beginning to slip quietly from our grasp. The colours are turning from green to gold and in hot weather the grass looks parched and tired. Plants are no longer growing vigorously, rather their energies are put into ripening seeds and fruits.

All of this is a sign that summer is on the wane, and won’t last forever, no matter how much we wish it could - so enjoy these golden days while they last - and they are now growing noticeably shorter - in London day length decreases over the month by 1 ¾ hours to 13 hours Here in Britain we have the General Education Acts of Victorian times to thank for selecting August as the most popular month for annual holidays. It was traditionally the time for gathering in the grain

harvest and back then almost everyone in rural communities would have been required to lend a hand. Even children were useful in turning sheaves or scaring crows from the gleanings. So when education became compulsory for all children under the age of ten, it was only sensible for the annual break to be established over the month of August so everyone could help with the harvest.

Today less than one percent of the population work on the land and even fewer have anything to do with harvesting as the commercial harvest takes place in July - and sometimes even earlier - and huge machines piloted by a handful of specialists are all that it takes to crop and process the fields of wheat and barley.

In the hedgerows the first elderberries and blackberries are ripening and trees such as rowan and yew carry red fruits. The tall graceful stems of cow parsley (or Queen Anne’s lace), that frothed along the lanes in May are now a withered tangle topped by long black fruits. You may also spot the

“Come, ye thankful people, come, Raise the song of harvest home; All is safely gathered in, ‘Ere the winter storms begin.”

blue bloom of new sloe berries promising the chance to make sloe gin next month. Blackberries can be harvested from the end of this month, but don’t succumb to the temptation to settle for easy pickings from roadside hedgerows as these will be contaminated with traffic fumes - as my mum used to tell me - the juiciest berries are always those right at the top nearly out of reach! It’s a great plan to take a walking stick with you on these expeditions to help pull down those topmost trusses of plump juicy fruit.

August 5 brings another harvest a maritime one - as this is the first day of the oyster season, although those who believe that oysters should only be eaten when there is an “R” in the month prefer to wait until September. Tradition has it that if you eat an oyster on this day they you won’t lack money for the rest of the year. In parts of London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries children had their own way of making money around this time. They would collect the oyster shells discarded form fish shops and restaurants and build cone-shaped grottos with a lighted candle inside or on the top, begging coins from passers-by as a reward for their efforts.

Later in the month, falls the Glorious Twelfth, the first day of the grouseshooting season. This sport is concentrated on the moors of northern England and Scotland where it makes a significant contribution to the rural economy. Like all blood-sports, grouse shooting has been the subject of controversy, but the increasing demand for the end product seems likely to ensure its survival. Within hours of the first shots being fired on the northern moors, the race is on to ship the birds to restaurants in London and elsewhere in time for lunch or dinner.

By the end of the month, the Scottish highlands and grouse moors are already showing signs of autumn, while further south, in the lowlands, the last hay cut is long since complete. There will still be walkers in the hills throughout September and beyond, but there is now a chill in the air which sends them back to their lodgings well before (the now much earlier) dusk falls.

The traditional August Bank Holiday weekend, falling on the last Monday of the month, is in many ways the last gasp of summer before the schools return for the new academic year and we begin to look towards the autumn months. But for now, the motorways leading to seaside towns and resorts host the final traffic jam of the season. Cars Coaches and caravans throng the roads as the warm summer sunshine tempts people out for their last official break before Christmas.

“Now by the hedgerows and along the lane The berried cuckoo-pint and yellow vetch Herald the autumn, and the squirrels rob Windfalls of hazel and the Kentish cob.”