November Almanac

November

November is the month we commemorate those who have fallen in battle as Remembrance Sunday is observed on the closest Sunday to the eleventh - the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice at the end of WW1. Edward Thomas, whose verse appears on the right was a casualty of that war. A Welshman, he began writing poetry late in his life, at the age of 36. Less than four years later, in 1917, he was dead, killed at the Battle of Arras.

Wreaths of poppies will be laid at the Cenotaph in London and other war memorials, the ceremonies headed by our new King, Charles III. The proceeds from poppy sales during late October and early November raise funds for needy or disabled ex-service personnel and their families. The flowers themselves represent the flowers that grew in the battlefields of Flanders during and after World War I, their bright red colour poignantly symbolic of the blood that was shed there.

It’s appropriate then, that November 11 is also St Martin’s day, or Martinmas, the feast day of St Martin of Tours, the patron saint of soldiers. Born into a pagan family, Martin served in the army before his baptism in AD 354 which allegedly followed a miraculous vision of Christ he experienced after sharing his military cloak with a freezing beggar. In former times, St Martin’s Day was marked with much festive eating and drinking, mainly because it fell at the time of the year when livestock were being slaughtered for winter food, geese were at their fattest and when the new season’s wine was ready for tasting.

“ November has begun, Yet never shone the sun as fair as now While the sweet last-left damsons from the bough With spangles of the morning’s storm drop down Because the starling shakes it, whistling what Once swallows sang.”

Edward Thomas 1915

November is the month for fog and frosts, that will bring the last few leaves tumbling to the ground. The countryside around us is turning increasingly brown as the stubble is ploughed under and the hedgerows and trees lose their last leaves to frost and wind. But even now there are still flashes of colour to be found.

Look for late rose hips, purple hawthorn leaves with deep red haws nestled among them, and strings of shiny red woody nightshade berries strung along the bare branches. Bracken and bramble offer shades of gold and a rich purplish-brown whilst the seed heads of wild clematis known as Old Man’s Beard festoon the hedges still. Down the narrow winding lane that brings us through the village and home again, there are still a few roses shining out in sheltered places, and the lemon-yellow fireworks of winter jasmine have begun to burst out on house and cottage walls. The churchyard hollies are packed with colour, berries clustering amongst their dark green shiny leaves, for all the world like swarms of scarlet bees or ladybirds.

The Elizabethan and Jacobean writer Nicholas Breton’s account of November notes that it is the season for hunting woodcock, pheasant and mallard and for the cook and comfit-maker to prepare for Christmas; it is also the time when butter and cheese rise in price, the nobility feast themselves while the “poore die through want of Charitie” and there is chilling cold and rain, and high winds. He also remarks on the high winds cha ract

eristic of this month - though these were never as bad as on 26 November 1703, when the Great Storm hit England. It has been estimated that this catastrophe was equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane, with winds gusting at 120 mph and waves breaking sixty feet high, killing eight thousand people.

This is a great time of year for bird watching as the lack of foliage makes them much easier to spot among the branches. Murmurations of starlings are of course a well-known and amazing sight, but you may also spot less dramatic flocks of blackbirds, visitors from Scandinavia which are much more sociable than the native British variety as well as whooper swans from Iceland, Bewick’s swans from Siberia as well as all kinds of geese, ducks and other migratory birds come to over winter here.

If you don’t already have nesting boxes in your garden now is the time to put them up as they’ll provide shelter for birds over the winter months and also become part of their habitat, ready for nesting in spring. Keep them well fed and healthy by stocking up your bird table and feeders regularly.

Finally, as November comes to a close, we are all very excitedly looking forward to Christmas. In our family the build up always begins with Stir Up Sunday - the last Sunday before Advent. This tradition dates back to Victorian times when the family would gather together to stir the Christmas pudding five weeks before Christmas.

“My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.” Wilkie Collins

1859