November 2023 News - All our News from The Somme
Posted on 30th November 2023 by Julie and David Thomson in General News.
November, November, where did you go? The month has past by here in a blur of activity.
So, what has been going on this November?
The weather has been wet, wet, wet! The wettest November we can remember for ages. Oh, and not forgetting Storm Ciaran who blew in with a savage intensity. Luckily, no damage here, but the Pas De Calais just north of us has seen some of the worst flooding for a generation. It also blew down some of the large trees in Newfoundland Park. We have had the odd, chilly, blue-sky day thrown in and even our first frosts of the winter. The light has sometimes been exquisite, the rain bringing clouds and rainbows and the mists bringing a surreal, ethereal beauty as we look across our beautiful landscape. Still the farmers toil, the tractors clogged with mud, deep ploughing and reseeding in evidence. Final crops such as sugar beet have been collected. The landscape while the same, changes its quilt for winter, already a green hue from new seedlings.
What poetry has inspired us this month?
October– we normally talk of mellow mists and fruitfulness for an October Somme and while this is true for the last week, summer stubbornly held on for the first half of October with warm, sunny days and perfect light. . which is confusing Mother Nature. We kept saying the weather is bonkers. Guests were wearing shorts and sunhats and sitting on the terrace. Now though, the heating is on and it is time to get Autumn cosy. The farmers are busy – potatoes and sugar beet being harvested and already The Somme has a green coat of new crop carpeting its contours, compared with the deep brown of those that have just been ploughed and wait the next sowing. There is a quality to the light in October which is very specific to the month. Lower sun means the light is more golden, softer, gentler, as if winter is being held back as long as possible. We have had some beautiful sunrises and sunsets too.
September – a favourite month of ours - not quite Summer,not quite Autumn, but you can see the season changing before your eyes. We have had mixed weather this month, some rain, but mainly unseasonably warm weather, more like July than early September (35 degrees) and then days of a super 23 degrees to finish the month. However, it is clear Autumn is knocking. The light is more golden, the sun setting earlier over the valley and rising later. The fields take on a different hue. The potatoes, onions and sugar beet are being harvested and winter crops are now being sown. The bees busy on the asters and ivy, the last pollen before winter.
August - Oh, where do we start this month? There are things to say, which we don’t want to write as if not writing them will make them not true. But they are. We have lost a good friend and a good chicken this month. There we’ve said it. Now let’s push it away and write about it later.
July - Mid-point of the year so it is appropriate we looked back and forward this month. The weather has been a real mixed bag, commemorations kept us busy, farmers kept busy harvesting, wonderful guests, and as always things keeping us busy but happy at No.fifty6.
