In the Bleak Midwinter

In the Bleak Midwinter

The familiar title of a popular Christmas carol seems in these days of fears of global warming rather out of touch. Although we might get some snow and some cold, it is rarely prolonged, provided there is no "beast from the East". However, when the poem was composed in the mid-1800's the Northern hemisphere was just coming to the end of a period known as "The Little Ice Age". This had begun in the 14th century and as well as regularly seeing the Thames freeze over , it also saw glacial regions of Europe, which had been decreasing since the end of the Great Ice Age, 11,000 years ago, start to advance again. This affected those who farmed the land freed from ice , as it once more covered fields and even villages.
Whilst the Ice Markets held on the Thames sound fun, winter for many was no joking matter. Winter continues to have a frightening reputation for animals, birds, insects and other living organisms apart from humans.
Speaking of the human plight, the 18th century Peasant Poet, John Clare wrote:
"Fortune! Smile on Winter's frown
Casting round a pitying scene.
Feed the hungry, ere they die
Think. Oh! Think upon the poor
Nor against them shut the door"
He also talks of "Snow on snow in heaps combine". All this, to me, has a particular poignancy as he describes the plight of my 18th and 19th century ancestors who were " agricultural labourers" and not unknown to poverty.

But , of course, it is not only humans who face the annual test of winter – the natural life of creatures and plants also share with us this time of trial. Over-many hundreds of thousands of years they have evolved various strategies for coping with winter.

First is that those who can move -Move! Birds particularly take to migrating to warmer climes, where food is more readily available. The great skeins of geese that we can see and hear flying over each afternoon have come to us from northern parts. They fly each day from there roosting places to they feeding grounds, which at this time are often maze fields and then return to the safety of their roosts on the Dee estuary in the afternoon. Also with us now are the Redwing and Fieldfares (both thrush-like birds) who can be seen feeding on berries of the Yew tree in gardens and park areas and the berries from the Hawthorn bushes. Some species, of course, leave us to go south for warmer African days. This migratory pattern is also used by some insects and one in particular is the Painted Lady Butterfly which can travel many hundreds of miles.

The problem for all species is shortage of available food. Humans can now avoid this by importing food from other parts of the globe. In the animal kingdom a way of avoiding running out of food, is to making a store . We are familiar with the Squirrels busy in Autumn hiding food away in different places whilst sometimes not remembering where they have buried it! Other rodents also follow the same behaviour laying up a winter store convenient for their winter nesting place..

One way to avoid winter is to sleep through it! So some, like the hedgehog, have evolved a slower metabolism which preserves energy . Hibernation also is used by insects in the form of larvae and chrysalises.

In the plant world we see a process of scaling back. So leaves are shed and new growth is halted. All food resources are drawn back into the roots as the main food receptors through photosynthesis from their leaves can no longer supply them. The losing of the leaves also reduces the damage the tree might suffer from winter storms. The bare-leaved trees whilst looking lifeless in fact are plotting next years adventure, when light and warmth return.

Whilst all around we see the natural world taking measures to survive winter. Some have evolved just to tough it out. Surviving on the scraps of food they can find and evolving covering to retain as much warmth as possible. Inevitably winter will take a toll, primarily of the weak, elderly and infirm being most vulnerable. In the natural world, however, one creature's demise may well be life for another.

For us humans modern life has taken much of the sting out of winter and we can indeed find beauty and joy in a winter's day. If we think of the world around us , the care we as humans are purposed to show, will lead us to provide food for birds or winter resting places for animals and insects in our gardens.
Winter has always been a harsh time for every living thing. Yet the natural world shows great resilience to bounce back even when some or much may be overcome
Humans too even in the most wretched of times and states have shared with the natural world its resilience, expressing a life-giving quality of hope. Our poet, John Clare, in his poem "A Winter Scene" recognises the hardship of all nature. He sees it as a way of putting human discomfort in the perspective of the natural world and being a means of awakening in us a sense of real HOPE in the future however the present may appear.

Adrian Leighton