Written by Pauline Kidner
Charity Founder and Advisor
The dark nights increase our call-outs to deer that all too often collide with cars, very often causing a lot of damage to the deer and the car. Only 20% of call-outs result in finding a deer that can be brought back to our centre for treatment. A lot of people don’t realise that deer usually go blind with stress. It will come back within a few days which just gives us enough time to deal with any wounds they may have. It is always wonderful to take them back to their territory and see them run off for their second chance in the wild.
But things are already getting ready for spring with the catkins on the Common Hazel tree becoming fully mature. Being so early in the year the pollinators will not be around so the hazel tree relies on the wind shaking the catkins. Clouds of microscopic pollen grains drift to another hazel tree which will have receptive female hazel flowers. They don’t have a strong scent as they aren’t trying to attract insects, but it’s enough to wake a sleeping dormouse that will come out of hibernation to eat the pollen. Having had its fill, the dormouse will go back to sleep again until early April.
January 12th is the time for wassailing, a pagan ritual dating back to the Middle Ages. Yet this is celebrated in many cider-producing parts of Britain – certainly Somerset with its history of cider making.
A wassail is a group of people gathering together in an orchard or around fruit trees, singing to the trees to bring a bountiful harvest later in the year. A wassail bowl of spiced cider or perry is shared around while people bang pots and pans to scare away evil spirits. Torches and bonfires are lit to welcome the incoming light as the days get longer. Evidently wassailers pour cider over the tree roots as a crop blessing – but I think more cider is probably drunk! Wassailing certainly worked this year as our cider trees in the orchard were laden with so many apples that the branches were dragged down on the ground. A very welcome feast for hedgehogs and badgers.
Wassailing many, many years ago was a way of poorer village people making some money during the winter months when there would be little farmwork to be done. It would be the women that would go from house to house with cider to share, hoping for money in return.
It may well be an old tradition, but it seems to be taking place more now with the celebration of Morris Men to add colour to the event. Good to have a fun event in the middle of January and the daylight slowly increasing. We will soon be seeing daffodils!
