Wanton signs of midsummer madness

There is a condition to this however - the weeds must be cut either at full moon or during the afternoon. I have never tried this system, but I doubt it works - all my weeds defy every attempt to control them.

In some areas, this day also features as Old St Barnabas' Day, though that should perhaps be written as the Unofficial Re-scheduled St Barnabas' Day.

Nowadays, the genuine St Barnbas' Day arrives on June 11, and lingering recognition of his feast day on June 22 arises due to Pope Gregory's calendar changes which resulted in 11 vanishing days. In England, where the new calendar took almost two centuries to be adopted, former saints' days and other festivals were held at the time (but not the date) they had been celebrated in the old-style calendar.

One place where the old day was retained was in Boroughbridge where the annual St Barnabas' horse fair was held on his feast day. In Boroughbridge, however, they moved their "Barnaby" fair to the new date of June 22, or the first Tuesday after June 22.

The Barnabv fair was a thriving, hectic and at times troublesome event, but today that old fair has ceased to exist. It came to a peaceful end sometime during the late 80s.

One of its features, I am told, was the Barnaby tart, a pastry full of lemon curd. This was sold in the pubs where it was customary to enjoy the tart with a pint of beer, preferably brewed locally.

Yesterday was the longest day of the year, and the first official day of summer, a day usually celebrated by members of the Most Ancient Order of Druids keeping vigil at Stonehenge, while tomorrow, June 23, is Mugwort Digging Night, Need Fire Night, Midsummer's Eve or the Eve of St John.

In some parts of Yorkshire, St John's Wort was collected and hung near doors and windows of houses as a protection against evil, while another custom was to dig beneath the roots of the mugwort plant in the belief it would reveal magic coal which would be a protection against thunder, lightning, plague and fire.

Need Fire Night is a reminder that fire was once a very precious commodity and, to keep the fires burning, flames were carried on torches by teams of runners who raced from house to house. Domestic fires were ceremoniously lit anew in the belief they would never be allowed to die out.

Sunday, June 24, is the Feast of St John the Baptist and also Midsummer Day, before which date one is not supposed to cut down one's crop of thistles. If you do cut them before today, they'll merely return with extra strength! The old verse goes:

Cut your thistles before St John

And you'll have two instead of one.

The best time to mow thistles is July - when they'll die!

Magpies

In the days before settling down to write this column, our garden was plagued with marauding magpies. Their presence was always announced by a loud and almost mocking chack-chack call, and this alerted us because our garden was then full of smaller nesting birds. A pair of blackbirds were nesting in one shrub, we've a pair of wagtails in another, bluetits in our nest box and two families of house sparrows under the tiles - not to mention some unwanted starlings.

In the adjoining gardens, there are other nesting birds, too, a wren in particular, and some dunnocks.

From the din created by the parents of those tiny youngsters - amply aided by soaring swifts, swallows and house martins - we knew when and where the magpies had arrived. At first, there was a single marauder, then two and eventually this morning, four. All four were fighting over something. I could not see whether one of them had secured a morsel of some kind, but I did wonder if the others were trying to steal it. They did not limit their sorties to our garden, however, but invaded all those gardens and plots around us, all the time issuing their harsh chack-chack calls and creating pandemonium among the smaller nesting birds.

Though knowing that nature must be allowed to take its course, we did chase them off whenever we could, but the moment we returned indoors, back they came for another attempt at raiding a nest.

Our blackbirds, who come to us for scraps, appeared to be the chief victims, but there is not much a pair of blackbirds can achieve against one, let alone four, hungry, vicious magpies. I think the blackbirds knew we were trying to help, for as we chased away the raiders, the blackbirds remained standing on the garden to gaze up at us as if to say, "When will they leave us alone?"

At my coffee time this morning, there was almost a riot with me rushing around chasing away four magpies, amply aided by swallows, swift, house martins, blackbirds, sparrows, pied wagtails and even some visiting seagulls. And then the magpies left.

It is now mid-afternoon, some four or five hours since their last visit, and they appear to have deserted our patch of land. But whether or not the nests of our garden birds have suffered is something I have not yet investigated. I think it wise to let them all settle down before I upset them further with my own visit to their nests, however innocent my purpose.

Shame

I have received further reports of ramblers and people on picnics disregarding no-entry signs on footpaths in areas affected by foot-and-mouth disease. In one case, a man tore down a notice and when admonished by some livestock owners, implied that he could do as he wished. Even though the registration number of the man's car was recorded by witnesses, it seems the authorities are either powerless to act or do not wish to do so. Surely, the evidence of a reliable witness is acceptable?

In another case, an anonymous person has sent the front page of The Farmers' Guardian for May 18 which outlines a case where more than a 100 people ignored warning signs, tore them down and climbed over locked gates to sunbathe in a field containing cattle. This was in direct contravention of the foot-and-mouth disease restrictions for that area which is near Kirby by Lonsdale. Upon departure, they left behind litter and discarded food. Through their own diligence, local people have managed to keep that area disease-free so how do we stop these fools?

Photographic evidence perhaps, by video or still camera? The careful recording of vehicle registration numbers along with descriptions of each vehicle and its occupants? Descriptions of trespassers so they can be recognised in the future, if a prosecution depends upon identification? Determination by the authorities would be advantageous too, as would a highly publicised court case if a prosecution follows.

Curlews

It's a long time since I saw a curlew at close quarters and almost as long since I've seen peewits on the moors. A couple of days ago, I saw both within a short distance of one another. The first peewit was a chick precariously crossing the road ahead of me and seconds later, I noticed what was surely one of its parents, a beautiful full-grown peewit or lapwing or green plover (the bird has three names).

It was wheeling and tumbling above the heather and appeared to calm down as the chick reached safety among the covering vegetation beside the road. In the next few minutes, I spotted other peewits but whether it was a pair re-appearing, or part of a larger group was difficult to judge. 1 was in the car at the time, not walking among the heather owing to foot-and-mouth disease restrictions, so my views were limited.

It was close to this sighting that I spotted a pair of curlews. The first flew low and slowly, emerging from the heather and flying only a couple of feet above the ground until he disappeared in the heather in a most leisurely manner. He was followed by another, his mate perhaps, and both vanished from sight. I wondered if the lack of moorland pedestrians had encouraged these birds to be more visible.