Friday 19 September 2014

Phenology - September

Warm September brings the fruit,
Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

"The Umbelliferae have died back to sticks." I couldn't find a rhyme for that.

It has been warm this September. Very little rain. The trees are starting to look a bit tired and droopy - hinting at autumn colours but not quite there yet. Maybe by the end of the month...
But the adult crane flies (daddy-longlegs) are tunneling out from under the grass and bumbling despairingly around inside houses and cars, before leaving awkward corpses scattered on every surface. And that's a sure sign that summer is over.



There is an odd (modern) piece of folklore about daddy-longlegs: that they are the most venomous arthropod/creature in the country ... but we are saved because their mouthparts are just too feeble to bite humans. I imagine them gnashing their little mandibles in frustration and weeping poisonous tears. 

Fortunately, none of this is true :-)

The real natural phenomenon of September is apples:


Apples:

And more apples:



Associated in legend with forbidden knowledge, eternal youth, temptation and sin, female sexuality (that seems to follow on from the former, huh), love magic ... where do I start?









Statue of  Alan Turing in Manchester


Never mind - someone has already done it :-)

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