Seasonal | Pilgrim's Perch

The Arrival of Spring

In the northern hemisphere many people have found that the long drawn out winter has seemed endless. The 21st March brings the spring equinox, when the length of the daylight equals the length of the nightlight. There is a noticeable shift in the quality of the light, too.

A grey day hanging over from a long winter

The flat grey days of winter with occasional brilliant contrasting shafts of bright light when the sun does shine give way to a more intense sunlight with a real feeling of warmth.

Splashes of bright and dazzling sun at last

The wind, when it blows, can still be harsh; sleet showers can catch us unawares but more often than not the rain falls more gently, more softly. The birds are singing; their joyful songs can be heard more and more early in the morning, and they continue late into the evening.

Joyful scents, colours and textures of spring

Life is just bursting to get going again after the slack time of winter when all has seemed to be asleep. Out in the garden you can sense the change. One garden writer has said, ‘This is the real thing and by the end of March any sane person is in a state of intoxication, falling in love again with this strange world.’

And indeed it really is a time to get out into the open, to notice the changes the light and the weather undergo; to relish the scent of the spring air, the heady perfume from cut grass, pine resin, sudden floral outbursts from daffodils, hyacinths, violets and other wonderful spring flowers.

‘There is no time like spring, when life’s alive in everything’

The Apple of my Eye

A girl reaches along a branch to pick an apple — *Reaching out to pick an apple*

I will give my love an apple without any core;
I will give my love a house without any door;
I will give my love a palace wherein he may be
And he may unlock it without any key.
My head is the apple without any core;
My mind is the house without any door;
My heart is the palace wherein he may be
And he may unlock it without any key.

– words from a traditional English folk song. Now is peak apple season and the abundance of homegrown apples is welcome as autumn comes into its own, days grow shorter and cooler and winter peeps around the corner.

A box of red apples fresh from the orchard — *Apple bounty – ripened to perfection*

This is the time of year to try out a different apple from the many that are available. Did you know that there are over 7500 known apple varieties, 2500 of which were developed in the UK?

The names of apples alone create a wonderful litany – Greensleeves, Egremont Russet, Fiesta, Keswick Codlin, Lord Lambourne, Worcester Pearmain. And that’s just the ‘eaters’ or dessert apples! Add in cooking apples and cider apples and you get Bramleys Seedlings, Allington Pippin and the delightfully-named Brown Snout and Crimson King.

Ladder against apple tree for collecting ripe fruit — *An abundant harvest of apples*

It’s often said that, ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ and apples have long been valued for their healing properties. As early as 8000BC apples were cultivated in the Nile, Tigris and Indus river valleys.

The Latin name for an apple is malum which also means ‘evil.’ This is believed to be the reason that the biblical Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was an apple tree. An apple in the hand of Eve when she tempts Adam suggests mischief and evil, whereas when pictured in the hand of Christ, the apple symbolizes the fruit of life and salvation.

Apples, particularly their skins, are an excellent source of antioxidants, which are believed to prevent damage to cells and tissues and help defend the body from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and even possibly Alzheimer’s disease. It is thought that the flavonoids in apples help protect against allergens and viral infections and improve lung function.

Apples store well with care and provide a good source of fresh fruit when the luxuriant salad and vegetable crops of summer months have ceased. Legend has it that magicians such as Merlin and Talesin were said to carry a silver bough taken from the apple tree and hung with bells and ripened fruits. This allowed them to cross between worlds and times. The name ‘Avalon’ is believed to come from an old Irish word meaning ‘the place of apples.’

So relish this wonderful season of apples and enjoy the fact that they really can do you good!

A your lad walks along munching an apple — *Small boy enjoying the health-giving delights of a crunchy apple*

Let’s go fly a kite…

One of the joys of summer holidays is being able to take time out and just wander without a specific goal or destination in mind. Walking along a sea shore, sand between the toes, wind in the hair, the cry of the seabirds and the susurration of sea waves gently curling on the beach. Lines from AA Milne’s poem Spring Morning come to mind:

Where am I going? I don’t quite know…

If you were a bird, and lived on high,
You’d lean on the wind when the wind came by,
You’d say to the wind when it took you away:
“That’s where I wanted to go today!”

A playful wind and an expanse of open beach create the perfect environment for the fun of flying a kite – something that has been enjoyed for hundreds of years. It’s unclear who invented the first kite but it is believed that the earliest kites, made of leaves and reeds, were used to aid fishing. An early written account of kite flying comes from China in 200BC when a general of the Han dynasty used a kite to fly over the walls of a city he was attacking to measure just how far his army would have to tunnel under the city walls to achieve domination.

Kites flying over the beach — Colourful kites dance in the breeze

Since then, kites have evolved and been used for many different purposes. As playthings for children they provided hours of amusement but gradually it was realised by scientists that they could be used for studying the atmosphere and understanding more about the weather.

Child plays with kite on the beach — A child has fun with a kite

Kite flying also helped with the development of early aircraft and they were used militarily in observation and aircraft recognition exercises. Modern hang-gliders and sports parachutes have their origins in early kites and today kite-surfing has become an extreme sport in which kite riders combine kite flying and surfing to perform breath-taking acrobatics.

A kite acrobat rides the sea — Kite riding with the birds

But you can keep it simple too – there’s still so much fun to be had with your feet on the ground and a simple colourful kite. As the children in the film ‘Mary Poppins’ found:

‘With tuppence for paper and strings
You can have your own set of wings
With your feet on the ground
You're a bird in a flight
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite.’

Child launches kite for the first time — The excitement of that first launch…