How long does it take for us to shift our understanding of when something should happen? When does an itregularity become the new baseline?
In 2005, on the website birdforum.net, a conversation began about the date rowan berries should begin to turn red. (Technically, the small fruit are pomes not berries. The common wisdom was that the arrival of cooler nights of August and September brought on the red colour, providing food for the migrating birds that passed through the area. But in 2005, the fruit had rippened by mid-July.
The summer of 2026 had record-breaking hot temperatures, and by mid-July the fruit of the rowan were reddening. The previons summer, the moor was submerged in fog most days, although there wasn't a lot of rain. Again, the fruit had reddened by mid-July. 2 In 2024, I didn't record when the fruit ripened. It was my first year using the pomes to make ink and I hadn't thought to record the seasonal changes in the plant. It wasn't relevant to me, yet.
The question begs: when do our surroundings begin to feel relevant enough to notice and record what is normal? Without a record, how do we know what normal is?
In urban parking lots, such as Morrisons and Waitrose, there are rowan trees planted. On the high moor, rowan is planted along roadsides. In addition to its human incantations, I find rowan on the steep edges of former tin mining gullies where the saplings have escaped browsing by livestock. a Land is colonised by successively different tree species.
Each has preferences. Rowan arrives early. It stabilises the soil and throws a bit of shade, creating conditions needed by other species. When others arrive and begin to thrive in small stands, rowan creates new possibilities as the forest edges outwards. 20% Dartmoor recorded the arrival of trees via the pollen captured in its peat. First willow and birch more than eight thousand years ago. Then hazel and oak (more than seven thousand years ago). Finally, alder.
These trees are all wind pollinated. Their pollen is caught and carried by the energy of the wind as it blows past. In the uplands of Dartmoor, the history of these trees is preserved in peat, which accumulates year-on-year.
Rowan does not readily keep its own history. It is virtually absent from the pollen record. Not because it wasn't here, but because its grains of pollen are sticky and heavy. The grains are caught and carried by small winged messengers
Rowan leaves the memory of its bright red fruit. Track the memory. Keep the record for the trees. Witness as the baseline shifts.
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Text available as a letterpress printed broadsheet, and large format edition with botanical ink.