Midsummer
Last week we received an email from a friend who can always be counted on to send beautifully illustrated digital Christmas greetings. This recent email, date-lined June 24th, contained the following message: ‘Christmas Greetings are conventional; Midsummer ones less so but in such a strange year when we have seen few people I thought I would send best wishes and hope that you are well and immunised’.
What a delightful message. No illustration this time, but a mouth-watering description of summer in Provence, with phrases such as, ‘long periods of reliably sunny weather’, ‘eat[ing] asparagus and early strawberries by Easter’ and a warning/promise that ‘summer in Provence is not just about sitting in the shade drinking pastis and playing boules (although those are very important); there are a wide variety of celebrations and events which show a different aspect of local culture from that of winter’. You can read the full version on his website at https://sites.google.com/site/peterdtoon/
Current circumstances ensure that any midsummer greetings from Terroir cannot compete with life in Avignon. We have, however, looked back as far as 2017 and can record that we seem to prefer to spend our mid summers in Great Britain, enjoying the long, often sunny, days on home territory, with children still in school (well, normally) and holiday accommodation relatively easy to find.
Here is our record of our last five midsummers.
Midsummer 2017
We are on Offa’s Dyke working our way between Knighton and Clun. We blogged last year about our long distance ramble along the Marches, but here are some previously unposted pictures of pastoral, patchwork, bosky borderlands. The weather is rather changeable and, one night, it turns really ugly, while we are in the pub. The tent was shredded but thank goodness for a flexible farmer and empty farmyard holiday lets. We return every evening to live in the lap of luxury for the rest of the trek. The views from those dormer windows are stunning.
Midsummer 2018
Now we are in the fens, visiting a friend in Ely. We have set up our tent in an eco campsite (https://www.fenendfarm.co.uk/eco-campsite/), carved out of an orchard and replete with a yurt, a tepee, a travellers’ caravan and ‘pitch your own’ plots, set deep in clearings in a sumptuous wild flower meadow. It was HOT, so part of team Terroir sleeps out under the stars.
Left to right: a tepee in the apple trees; a wonderful display of chicory (Cichorium intybus); the caravan; a flat fenland farm makes your own air strip easy, but possibly less eco
Midsummer 2019
Back on Offa’s Dyke, walking from Clun to Oswestry. The trail crosses the old Oswestry race course. The grandstand, pictured on the information board (left), is now a shadow of its former self (below centre) and the area no longer rings to the buzz and bustle of race meetings, but perhaps the two headed horse sculpture hints of past ‘suspect behaviour’! Two way bet, anyone?
Midsummer 2020
Unsurprisingly, we are based at home. Sign havoc keeps us amused.
Over the midsummer week, we make a couple of socially distanced excursions.
Nonsuch Park on the south east edge of London is the remnant of Henry VIII’s royal palace and deer park. The gardens are great for chilling and weddings (shame about the all-over shaved grass), the wider and shaggier park is wonderful for wildlife.
Collard Hill in Somerset is the midsummer must-go-to place to find the large blue butterfly. Sadly, they appear to be practising social distancing. There are other compensations, however: St Mary the Virgin, Charlton Mackrell, a thatched cottage in Winterbourne Stoke and the greatest midsummer location of them all, dramatically snapped from a moving car on the A303; the photographer was not driving.
Midsummer 2021
We’re still at home! Our midsummer trip is to the Brockham Lime Works, a stunning open space rich in wildlife, industrial heritage and extraordinary walking opportunites. This chalk-based and surprisingly varied landscape is rich in plants, birds, butterflies, bats, reptiles - we could go on. The lime kilns are listed grade II and, in our view, the scenery can compete with the best Europe can offer, albeit on a smaller, man made, scale. We will be blogging about this Surrey Wldlife Trust/Surrey County Council managed reserve in a later post. https://www.surreywildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/brockham-limeworks
Left to right: meadow brown butterfly on privet flower; quarry cliff now peregrine falcon habitat; former industrial heartland; fragrant orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea)
Belated midsummer greetings to all.