I’ve been busy! This week’s field notes are a short story from the allotment about the purple daisies some of you may know as Asters, with a few exciting updates at the end.
I recently became a “friend” of Redacre Growing Project in Mytholmroyd. A biodiversity haven between the sewage works and the canal. I went down to help my friend Jamie and his mum, Erika, collect apples from the trees, some of which were so heavy they were toppling over. We separated them into piles: picked off the tree, windfalls, and slightly nibbled, to go home for eating or being turned into crumbles and jams.
Erika, known as the allotment “fairy” for her habit of sprinkling green-fingered fairy dust where she walks, had a cluster of beautiful lilac flowers at the gate of her plot. I noticed they were bustling with invertebrate visitors; I counted at least four different species within a minute, including what my novice classification skills could only identify as a simple “bee”.
“Those are Michaelmas Daisies”, she said in her soft Inverness accent, “Asters”.
Jamie dutifully entered the name into Google and informed us that they’re named after Michaelmas, a Christian festival honouring the Archangel Michael and all angels (blimey!), celebrated on the 29th of September. That was tomorrow. And so, the subject of Field Notes: 05 was found.
Michaelmas Daisy
The Michaelmas daisy is a late-flowering perennial that blooms when many other plants are fading, providing an important source of nectar and pollen for pollinators late in the season. Its flowers appear near the autumn equinox, when day and night are balanced, and it is believed to offer protection for the dark days ahead.
The Michaelmas daisy was traditionally classified in the genus Aster, but many North American species have since been reclassified into the genus Symphyotrichum. But Aster has a better ring to it, doesn’t it? And the word comes from the Greek word for “star”, referring to the beautiful starburst from the yellow centre.
The Asteraceae family contains more than 33,000 species, the largest and most diverse family in the world. What is cool about their flowers is that they are composites; instead of being a single flower, they are actually made up of hundreds of tiny florets. What we might think are petals are actually ray florets, which act as a landing strip to attract pollinators to the hundreds of tiny disk florets- the tiny yellow flowers in the centre- each with its own reproductive structures. So, that partly explains why they are so successful, as every time a pollinator lands on a composite flower, they get loads of nectar and pollen from all of those tiny flowers, and then they all produce a seed! They have a clever staged opening process, where the disk florets bloom from the outside in, so the flowers open at different times. Interestingly, some composites have only ray florets, such as the dandelion; some have just the disk, like thistle or burdock; and some have both, like sunflowers and daisies! Cool!
So what can we learn from the Michaelmas daisy and the composites? Nature needs late bloomers! And, like the composites, we are all “made up of various parts or elements”, so if one part of you doesn’t feel like its blooming right now, it doesn’t mean it won’t bloom again.
Hey Nature Updates
I did my first craft fair. And it was wonderful! So I am excusing the lack of time for roaming the hills, but I am looking forward to getting back outside and soaking up the autumn sunshine this weekend.
Here are some photos from my stall at the Mill Town Arts Autumn Market at Hebden Bridge Town Hall. It took a huge amount of preparation to get myself, my display and my stock organised and looking just right, but it was so worth it. I couldn’t believe how many kind comments I received, and the lovely conversations I had with curious visitors filled my heart to the brim. It’s so encouraging to hear that people like my work and can relate to how getting out and drawing in Nature is so good for you. But it does feel crazy to me that people like my little plant fairies enough to take them home. I am sending a huge thank you to those who came along and supported my work. It has definitely blown wind in my sails and reassured me I am going in the right direction, which I am very grateful for, and I’m feeling excited for more to come!
Everyone really liked my notebooks! I heard lots of “I wish my notebooks looked like this”, “everyone should go out and do this”, or “you should publish these”. It got my creative cogs turning, and I am going to test out some new products for my next fair at Tod Artisan Market on Sunday 22nd November. New Nature Notebooks coming soon!
Otherwise, I’ve started the King’s Trust Enterprise programme and have been assigned a business mentor called Michelle, who is just great. She emails me with bullet-point summaries of our meetings and a list of actions to complete for the next one. Methodical, systematic and holding me accountable - great! She really likes my idea to create a Hey Nature offering for schools to complement the new natural history GCSE. It is meant to start being taught in September 2028, so until then, we are thinking of getting some funding to run a pilot here in Hebden and build up to it. Something else that is in the works…
I met Siya Liu, a lovely illustrator and one of the ten artists in residence commissioned to celebrate the Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature Reserve, during our Peat Appreciation Society artist residency at Everybody Arts. She liked my notebooks and my Bog Beings and had lots of questions about peat and Sphagnum moss. She has asked me to come and show some bits at her sharing event at Keighley Library on Friday 30th October. Her work is absolutely gorgeous, and I’m looking forward to seeing where her explorations into the ecology of Ilkley Moor have taken her in her Field Guide of Birdsong and Bogs, so do come along! And finally, on a boggy note, I dropped off my Bog Beings collection of cards and prints at Earth Spirit above Spirals in Hebden Bridge. Couldn’t have found a better place to stock for my first stockist!
Thanks for getting to the end of my rambles! I hope you are all enjoying the autumn colours. Here’s your reminder to get out on the hills this weekend and enjoy the trees’ display before the leaves settle on the earth.
Love, Mel x
