On this last day of August it's been hard to escape hearing the word Autumn. And seeing fallen leaves on footpaths and brightly coloured berries hanging from trees usually prompts such thoughts. There's also the end of summer holidays and the depressing thoughts of returns to work.
But autumn spring and summer are human constructs not understood or recognised by nature. Winter is a closing down that is clear enough. But once life starts in spring no two weeks are similar enough to deserve the same limiting word. Different plants and animals thrive and draw back according to rhythms and sequences that are not universally shared. Each week has its own character from the Coltsfoot in March and then Wood Sorrel in April to the deer rut in October. But there are many other landmarks on the way and they are not the same at all levels. I always think of the Cow Parsley season as just one example. Maybe we should have a Burdock fruit season or a Hogweed Seedtime.
Admittedly they don't always roll off the tongue as easily as Summer and Autumn but that's the tyranny of language, over-generalising when it can get away with it.
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