Distinguished; respected; eminent; venerable. What a word is august? But its reputation as a month, for being the height of summer is not really so well deserved. In Britain, August Bank Holiday is associated with sultry days, picnics destroyed by squalls, children sheltering from rain under beach umbrellas and not a ray of sunshine.
This year we’ve had a noticeable decline in temperatures. Sometimes the mornings have been clear and warm, then by lunchtime clouds waft in. But in spite of these showers, I’ve needed to keep watering. This rain doesn’t soak in, instead it sizzles on the hot decking and evaporates up into the clouds again, ready to pour down on some other unsuspecting souls.
The heat of the city, billowing upwards, creates huge thunder clouds. Another August Bank Holiday nightmare. It seems that this year we’ve been affected by something called the Spanish Flume. Hot air from the centre of Spain is wafted northwards into a kink in the jet stream, where it sucks up water from the land and creates huge thunderous storms. I’ve been transfixed by a new website called www.lightningmaps.org At any time of the day or night this map shows thunderclaps across Europe in real time. (Sorry I don’t know if there is a similar site in the US) As I watch the screen right now, a storm is raging from Ixworth to Stoke Ash in Suffolk. Every time I see a flash, it means the satellite has detected a lightning bolt. There is something strangely compelling about this website. I get feelings I can only interpret as shadenfreude, when I see that other people are having the storms and not us.
August is derived from the Latin word, augere, meaning to increase. As it happens, this month does welcome in the period of plenty, the harvest. In the garden at the moment I’m cropping French beans and runner beans, cucumber, three different types of tomatoes, as well as lettuces, courgette, peppers and all the herbs. At this time of year the humidity swells fruits in no time. The courgette goes from three inches long, to twelve overnight. The runner beans are now really motoring, getting longer so quickly. If I close my eyes I can almost hear them growing. The cucumbers augere themselves so fast, I have to mark them with ribbons. Im scared that if I miss one they will burst!
The verb augere, augment also lent itself to a name. Augustus, Gus, Auguste, all come from this root. The first person to name himself Augustus, was Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar and the first Emperor of Rome. He knew that names mean everything, changing his name several times over his rise to leadership, until the title Imperator Augustus was coined by the Senate in 27BC. By calling himself a word that meant, exalted, highly regarded, well thought of, it was surely only a matter of time that Augustus would reach that pinnacle.
In the garden the climbers have now all reached the top of their trellises, as if knowing that this month of August is their last chance. The beans are cascading beautifully, dotted here and there with orange nasturtiums, or purple morning glory. These flowers are the bulls-eye for roaming bees and pollinators.
The courgette is not so effusive, but by gentle training, and the auspicious use of twine, it too has reached the top of the trellis. We all know that moments of glory do not last long. September is so near now. Do the plants feel that extra chill in the air at night? Is that why they all put on a spurt? Or do they detect the shortening day-length?
The month of August is named after the Emperor Augustus, just as July was named after Julius Caesar. The senate decreed it. But there was a problem, the month of August traditionally had only 30 days. So the Senate, not wishing to short change Augustus, extended the month of August by one day, thereby introducing a complexity into our calendar that still endures. To balance all this, the Romans summarily cropped one day from February, giving it a paltry 28 days, and gave that extra day to August. To this day in our calender July and August both have 31 days. It wouldn’t do for Julius Caesar to have a longer month that Augustus.
I’m rather pleased that August is long and February is short. I’m happy that August can endure for just 24 hours longer than it might have.
Augustus reigned as Emperor for over forty years. His reign was esteemed and celebrated. Under Augustan rule the Roman citizen enjoyed a period of peace and plenty, referred to as the Pax Romana. In my deckchair, I shall also hope to enjoy the Pax Londinium this Bank Holiday weekend in the rooftopvegplot. And next week, I shall particularly relish that extra day of August, as the 30th ticks into the 31st.
Just like Augustus, who was intent on a long and fruitful reign over his kingdom, I hope to enjoy the last of the summer days fruitfully, in my empire - the garden.