Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Happy Michaelmas Day!

Or Happy Feast of Michael and All Angels, which sounds even more of a mouthful.

A day spent In Dove Dale, a National Trust property leading from Dalby Forest.

The dale is a peaceful grassy valley with rushy flushes, bracken and scattered trees along a meandering stream. It is not grazed and is therefore sub-optimal for nature conservation. 

To compensate for this lack of trampling and grazing by herbivores, the meadows have to be managed to control the invasive bracken. Bracken has been biannually cut by hand in late spring or early summer for about five or six years now and the upshot is now a glorious display of wildflowers and butterflies.

But that was in the summer, most flowers have now seeded and an autumn task is to strim the meadows and gather up the hay.


So, St Michael’s Day, when he fought with His Satanic Majesty which caused the devil to fall to earth and land on a bramble bush which he promptly cursed. Or worse — one variation I have heard is that the devil peed on the berries. Hence don’t eat blackberries after the 29th September.

On Michaelmas Day the devil puts his foot on blackberries”.


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