It is the 31st of the month and the sun is now setting at 5pm and already the long, dark nights are on the wane. We have ended the month on a beautiful sunny and warm, yes, a warm sun on my face kind of a day.  Newly washed clothes drying on the line – I kid you not. It felt like a gift to end the month in this way, in general it has been a harsh and cruel month, with weather that as devestated the county of Cornwall and brought chaos into many lives for many weeks.

Storm Goretti swept through Cornwall and massacred whole areas of trees, it was a savage and brutal felling and heartbreaking to see.  Cornwall County Council asked for help from the government to cover the 5 million it spent dealing with the fallout from the storm. I don’t think anyone is holding their breath on that request. It was a complete disaster: over 55,000 homes without power (15,000 in our local area around the Lizard), 16,000 without running water, 80% of trees on St Michael’s Mount were felled on the North side, one poor man died from a tree falling on his caravan (two miles up the road from where we live), winds of over 100mph were logged at Culdrose, the highest speed ever recorded on the airfield, a bleak site at the best of times.

On the night of the storm it was pretty wild here but no real damage. We have two woodburners and each one was howling a different tune down the flue, courtesy of the wind. Every window frame joined in the orchestra of sounds with various whistling effects, completely freaking the dogs out.  Tiles flew off both house and barn and we could hear them all smashing to the ground.  One tree down on our track and one down near the studio bringing the end of the guttering with it. Our wifi and landline were brought down and still lie in tatters at the side of the bridge in the valley.  It is not yet restored and it is 4 weeks after the Storm Goretti hit the area.  Other villages close by had no water for two days and no electricity for several days. It barely merited a mention in the national news or in Parliament.  Had it been in the South East or in the Cotswold, where many politicians have their second homes, it would have been front page news for a week or two and declared a national disaster.  Ah well.

Inspite of all the chaos, nature, as ever, just marched on doing its stuff. We continued to have days and days of rainfall, mornings of white frost all over the land, but generally mild in tempersture. The river broke its bank several times, flattening all the growth along the bank but the Alexanders seemed unaffected and were showing good vigorous growth. Snowdrops appeared in clumps all over the valleys and hedgerows. Bright yellow solitary Dandelions appeared here and there, looking a bit lonesome all on their own. Their warm, sunny colour is so welcome at this point in the year, when there is so much grey around. I also came across a rather beautiful lichen, a pale umber colour but have had difficulty in identifying it.  The closest in terms of shape is Parmotrema Perlatum, but examples of this are always green in colour. Time to buy the Illustrated guide to Lichens I think. The best sight of the month was down on the riverbank, it was like a scene from a fairy tale wood. The older trees were completely blanketed in a glorious green, soft, spongy moss.  I identified this as the Cypress-leaved Plait Moss, (Hypnum cupressiforme), courtesy of the British Bryological Society, ‘promoting the study of mosses and liverworts’.  A completely briliant site, covering academic journals, field guides, recording and research etc.  Amongst other things, I learnt that there are over 700 varieties of Moss in the UK, luckily for me, only 3 species are found on trees. Phew.