September 2023
Our mountain September brings slightly shorter days and cooler nights, mists in the small hours and morning dew. Watering can now be sporadic if I have other things to do, whereas a month ago it was a matter of life or death for anything planted in a free-standing pot or tub. It’s still summer, but the signs of its ending are there, for all that we may choose not to acknowledge them.
One such sign is the appearance in the garden of autumn crocus. Between one day and the next, hundreds of bright pink buds push through the grass and open to the sun. Their stamens are covered with golden powder, and there are people around here who claim to have collected it and used it in cooking, believing it to be proper saffron. Others are adamant that the stuff is deadly. I’ve never bothered about it either way – I just enjoy the sight of the flowers. Besides, I’d have to collect something like 3000 of them to obtain half an ounce of ‘saffron’, if that indeed is what it is, and though there may be hundreds in the garden, there are certainly not thousands.
September also sees my several rowan trees (known in North America as mountain ash) decked with bunches of orange berries, and consequently, full of feasting birds. My neighbour is shocked when I tell her I once made jelly from these ‘poisonous’ berries and gave the jars away (perfectly true: I collected the berries from trees in a London square, and the jelly recipients are still alive and well). Country folk often believe that abundant berries on rowans and hollies herald a hard winter ahead, illogical as it may seem to give trees the power of prediction. Surely, I say, the berries are the fruits of last winter’s severity? But such observations are met with a silent, downward look, and an unspoken ‘you’ll see…’. Similarly, my enthusiasm for including elderberries in jams and desserts goes against the conviction that elder-anything is poisonous. ‘Not the flowers’ I reply (thinking of elderflower cordial), ‘or the berries when cooked’, and joke that attaining my current age has included many apple and elderberry crumbles along the way. Still, the downward glance is eloquent, and though I observe that everyone is out blackberrying on these sunny afternoons, I’ve yet to see anyone else collecting elderberries.