In the British Isles the rowan has a long history in folklore as a tree which protects against enchantment. Pieces of the tree were carried by people for personal protection. Today I did a beautiful thing: built a rose arch from timber I had first felled and trimmed. My work is not in itself beautiful, but the act of doing it was, the replacement of a fallen frame, an old rose set to prosper. The Cambridge scientists’ discovery of the ‘thermometer molecule’ caused surprise among other scientists. At the foot of Glastonbury Tor in Somerset stand two very ancient oaks, reputedly over 2000 years old and known as Gog and Magog. It is thought they may be the last remnants of an avenue of oaks leading up to the Tor, itself steeped in myth and legend.

Who is this man, this troubled man whose sombre diary entries we read with curious fascination? We never learn his name because there is no direct dialogue. Names, anyhow, bother him. In an October entry, he writes: “Compulsive, this need to name things, so to give them meaning. I name birds and tools and things, while unable to nail a helpful thought about the personal feelings which most matter to me.” what Cooper offers, very boldly and successfully, is a broad narrative arc of collapse and tentative recovery, in which a struggle for meaning and purpose in life assumes a desperate intensity.... Because of the narrator's inability to describe his anguish, what's mostly written here is not his pain, but his clinging to life: the beauty caught and traced, with great skill, in trying to overcome suffering. In its journal form, Ash before Oak salvages detritus, the unremarkable mess, banality and repetition of the everyday, just as the narrator works on restoring his dilapidated buildings in Somerset. And in a larger way, too, with admirable wisdom and precision, it salvages, from agonizing, ruinous thoughts and experiences, something transcendent, of lasting value.’ Mistletoe, probably the Druids’ most potent and magical plant, frequently grew on oak trees. Its presence was believed to indicate the hand of God having placed it there in a lightning strike.

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This quant old country saying is still widely known today, and whilst not a scientific way to predict summer rainfall, it does demonstrate a long-standing interest in the variability of seasons from year to year and how trees respond differently to it. As for the trees themselves…in early winter, the deciduous trees entered dormancy. They shed their leaves, stored sugars and amino acids in their roots, branches and trunk, and waited for warmer temperatures to return. During this time, as long as temperatures are above freezing, water continued to flow into the roots. Trees absorb water until water pressure in the trees is equal to their surroundings. As the air and soil temperatures rise in spring, the trees are primed and ready to go. They are flush with water and have started to move sugars from their roots to the twigs, supplying the energy needed to grow new shoots and leaves. This process is often referred to as “ the sap rising”. Jeremy Cooper’s latest novel is often so realistic you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a memoir. But it’s fiction, excellent fiction, in the form of a journal following the quotidian existence of a lonely writer living in Somerset. In the opening paragraph of the first journal entry, the narrator, writing about a rose arch he built, declares: “My work is not in itself beautiful, but the act of doing it was, the replacement of a fallen frame, an old rose set to prosper.” In parts of Europe it was the custom for maple branches to be hung around a doorway to prevent bats from entering the building. Beech

Herzog, the filmmaker, wrote in his Fitzcarraldo journal: “why do these animal dramas preoccupy me so? Because I do not want to look inside myself. Only this much: a sense of desolation was tearing me up inside, like termites in a fallen tree trunk.’

The awakening forest

I don’t want to cook and I don’t want to be cooked for, I don’t want to speak or be spoken to and I don’t want to be silent or be silenced, I don’t want to be seen by anybody and I don’t want to be left alone, I don’t want to live and I don’t want to die. But the narration is still dominated by the cataloging of trees, birds and butterflies, and his painstaking project to rewild his garden. As he comments, in a rather neat reference to the movie from which his publisher takes its name: It is generally accepted that oak usually comes into leaf earlier than ash, which is said to be in leaf for a shorter period of time than any other native British tree, but the problem seems to be deciding what ‘out’ means; is it sufficient for the leaves to be emerging from their buds, or do the leaves have to be fully developed? Oak before ash, we’re in for a splash. Ash before oak, we’re in for a soak.” This refers to the time of year that the leaves come out and is a forecast for the future season’s weather. This year we are in for a splash with oaks already coming out, however, to disappoint you, the oak is almost always first with its leaves And very little of the outside world intrudes - he doesn't watch television and it is some considerable time before he begins to read periodicals - the TLS and New Statesman his journals of choice.

But our honeymoon was in the last week of May, not the first, as the bluebells are blooming in 2022. Is this yet another signal of climate change, that a key flowering season is now a full one month earlier than it was even just half a lifetime ago? He builds tentative relationships with others in the area, particularly those engaged in similar refurbishment and nature reclamation projects, but remains deliberately isolated. Even 2.5 years after the journal, and his very gradual rehabilitation, starts he comments:

The people behind this celebration of the uncelebrated say that dandelions “have importance for biodiversity around the world, yet it is also sadly one of the most hated ‘weeds’.” They will therefore be delighted to know that the dandelions of Roundshaw appear to be on their second flowering of the year now. As such, there is no conclusion to the book, we don't know whether the unnamed narrator stays where he is, manages to carry on with life or not. But it doesn't matter. Some of the descriptions of the natural world, his battle with the moles that are digging up his lawn, the attempt to create a butterfly meadow are lovely. Some of his references to the art world were completely lost on me, and the description of his trip to see family in New Zealand was just a bit too long. Robert Marsham is considered to be the father of phenology. He recorded 27 signs of spring, starting in 1736 and continuing for over 60 years on his English estate. Successive generations of his family added to his work until well into the 20th century Ancient kings presented themselves as the personifications of these gods. They took on the responsibility not only for success in battle but also the fertility of the land, which relied on rainfall. They wore crowns of oak leaves, as a symbol of the god they represented as kings on Earth. Similarly, successful Roman commanders were presented with crowns of oak leaves during their victory parades. Oak leaves have continued as decorative icons of military prowess to the present day. Oak leaves’ connection with rainfall also survived in more recent folklore. There are a variety of similar rhymes about which tree’s leaves appeared first, such as the Irish saying:

In London, he befriended many artists. The names given are those of real artists. He thinks often of particular works by these friends and other artists which, combined with his burgeoning depression brings Sara Baume’s equally introspective novel, A Line Made By Walking, to mind. Neither book depends on the likeability of their narrator or the intrigue of plot. Instead, the access to an always questioning, agitated mind is reason enough to keep reading, especially when the writing is so cogent and fine. A photoreceptor molecule in plant cells has been found to have a second job as a thermometer after dark – allowing plants to read seasonal temperature changes. Scientists say the discovery could help breed crops that are more resilient to the temperatures expected to result from climate change. Quite unlike any other novel published this year: a bold, radical, almost embarrassingly direct assault on modern complacencies, both political and artistic.’

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But most of the other trees, too, now have their fresh, bright, light green young leaves opening out for the first time. As a boy, in the autumn I loved to play with the helicopter seeds of sycamore, unaware of their invasive virulence. He is writing in the hopes of fending off depression and working out why he is where he is, and how to move forward. We see the change in the seasons, the change in his mood, and his interest in the natural world growing steadily. Both tree species come into leaf around the same time of year, between late March and May, but the precise timing of an oak tree's leafing is mainly determined by temperature, while ash trees are more heavily influenced by the number of daylight hours. If spring arrives early, with high temperatures in February and March, oak trees will likely leaf first; if cold conditions persist into April, ash will probably have the advantage. Next time you hear the well-known “ If the Oak before the ash …“, think as well about the ash before the ash before the ash ….