Notes from Sun Rising

Oh how we needed rain … and now we have it!  With the few days of warmth and the ground now soaked with rain, the trees at Sun Rising are drawing in the water with a shimmering delight.  All last summer many of our saplings barely grew an inch or more, yet in the past few weeks, every moment of warm sunshine has inspired them to push out their new leaves and grow!

Much more rain and we’ll be holding our breath though.  Here’s a beautifully dramatic photo taken by my colleague at the burial ground, Bruce Chatterton, on his phone.

Spring Rain Clouds

With Sun Rising Hill rising so sharply behind the site, it isn’t unusual to have such wild cloud formations, but it’s often hard to capture them.  On the day this was taken (yesterday : Sunday 6 May), we had a break from the rain, in fact.  Today it has returned, leaving the fields once again vibrant and lush with green growth, the air sparkling with life.

Spring’s colour is yellow, and at Sun Rising the winter’s snowdrops have now all given way to the beautiful rich blooms of the daffodils.  The first cowslips are coming through in the meadow and some early primroses, together with the first dandelions.  With the pale green of tender new leaves, the first being the hawthorn in the hedgerows and the cherry trees on graves, there is such an uplifting sense of new light, a new cycle, new life.

Daffodils

The warmth of this week is, of course, a delight in many ways, but we desperately need rain.  When it comes, the earth will soak it up with such a thirst.

Another absolutely windless day at the burial ground again today, with the softest cold mist.  The temperature was below freezing, and patches of snow still lie on the grass and the paths after the snowfalls and flurries earlier in the week.  There is something very holding, somehow magically tender, about Sun Rising when it is like this.  The photo here gives an inkling of the feeling.

Misty Roundhouse

More snow is due to fall over the coming days, which will again no doubt blanket the burial ground in soft silence.  If only it weren’t so cold …

With Sun Rising Hill behind us, and the beauty of rural Warwickshire spreading out before us, the skies above the burial ground are seldom without interest.  The ridge of the hill lifts and changes the winds, influencing the clouds whether they are sweeping towards it or coming off the high Cotwolds towards the plains.  For me, these wide open skies, with such beautiful patterns and colours of cloud, are one of the really special elements of the site, inspiring the soul, lifting me when I’m low.

This photo was taken on my mobile phone, so the quality is not brilliant, but it gives an inkling of what the sunset was expressing a few days ago.  I hope by posting it here, it offers a little of that inspiration to others.

Sunset over Sun Rising

At this time of year, I feel sure that winter sunsets are the most beautiful of the year, but in six months I shall be equally sure that the summer’s sunsets are the best!

It was a delight to spend time with a few of the OWLS over the weekend, volunteers from the Oxhill environmental group : http://www.oxhill-owls.org.uk. We’ve had some terribly cold days, and the day we met was one such day – a wild easterly wind biting our faces but not dimming our shared enthusiasm for the flora and fauna of this beautiful part of central England.

As well as the first snowdrops bravely flowering in the cold wind, the busy chirruping of the tree sparrows on the feeders was wonderfully cheering too.  It was great for our OWLS visitors to see the abundance of tree sparrows at the burial ground.  Here is a shot that has been typical for almost a year.

Feeder Full of Sparrows

It is our hope that next year the population of great tits and greenfinches will recover.  The numbers are significantly down on from previous years.  With our bird feeder volunteers filling up our industrial sized feeders twice a week, we are doing all we can to give them a fighting chance.

Sometimes this time of year feels so melancholy.  Like grief, it calls on us to learn how to exhale, to relax, to let go, which can be so desperately hard to do.  Summer is now gone, and the falling of the leaves only emphasises that it is gone, and we have long cold months ahead.

But nature, which can be so brutal, shows us such beauty at the same time.  As I shuffled through the fallen leaves, especially the field maple, the colours are so brilliant, so subtle, so varied, and I find myself crouching to explore them, getting cold and wet fingers, but finding a warmth growing in my heart.

The last of the berries are still in the hedgerows, the rose hips and haws from the hawthorn, sloes from the blackthorn, some of which will persist, hanging on until spring.  And today, looking through the hedge, even on such a grey and drizzly day, I caught a glimpse of those colours : the gold of a young maple, and an oak behind, with the red haws in front.  Beautiful.

Autumn Berries and Leaves

I have added a few more pictures to our Autumn gallery on the website.  Have a look and see what you think: http://sunrisingburialground.co.uk/gallery/autumn.html