Made of stardust, powered by sunshine
A question - what is the most important invention on the planet, ever? The wheel? Fire? Electricity? Friends, I give you the humble leaf - home to the cleverest bit of technology on the planet - the ability to literally make stuff out of nothing more than air and sunshine.
Estimates of how efficient photosynthesis is (how much stuff a leaf can make out of how much sunlight) range between around 11% and 26% depending on what you’re measuring. Humans are only slowly catching up. Modern solar photovoltaic panels have only recently reached around 20% efficiency, though unlike leaves, our solar panels haven’t yet acquired the ability to self-replicate. Well, the leaf has had a 3 billion year head start on us.
We may be made of stardust but we are powered by sunshine. Everything we eat, whether it’s a cheese sandwich, a five course gourmet meal or a bar of chocolate, every bit of it all starts starts with sunlight on a blade of grass, a tree, a leaf, somewhere. And not just the food we eat, but most of the energy we presently use - all the gas, coal and oil that powers so much of modern life was once created by a sunshine lighting up a leaf, millions of years ago. Obvious enough, but worth a nod of acknowledgement as we watch shoots push through the cool spring soil in search of that precious sunlight.
I feel as if I am personally powered by sunshine too. My motivation flags to near zero in the short dark months. It’s hard enough to get out of bed in the dark, let alone put a working shift in outside in in dismal light and low temperatures.
The spring equinox marks the big change in my circadian wiring. It’s usually the 21st March, that magical date when our skewiff planet is sideways on to the sun, meaning that everywhere from the poles to the equator gets exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Takes a bit of head scratching to envisage it, but that’s how it is. From now, the days will lengthen everywhere north of the equator until June 21st. Enjoy the ride while it lasts, friends.
We travelled down to Sussex this weekend for my mum’s birthday (a very sprightly 86 - I’m sure she won’t mind my saying…) . This is my parents’ front garden as it was on her birthday, 25th March. It’s full of colour and life every day of the year - exactly as a garden should be. Well done Mum - it looks wonderful.
The clocks went forward last night, marking yet another step towards our summer life. Much as I love spending the light evenings outdoors, it will take me a couple of weeks to adjust in the morning. It’s been such a joy to wake gently and naturally at around 6.30 to early sunlight coming in through the windows. It won’t be easy to get up in the dark again while we wait for the lighter mornings.
But our days of leisurely lie-ins are long past. The gardens re-open to the public on Wednesday 28th March and orders are flooding in for projects all over the country. This lovely collection is heading to Scotland in a few weeks. It’s wonderful to think of our lovingly home-grown, peat-free plants winging their way to new homes, ready to brighten up a small corner of our gorgeous, precious, sun-soaked planet.
Talking of sunshine….
My domestic solar panels generated half of the electricity we used in February. I also bought 40% of what I used overnight at cheap rate, meaning only 10% was bought from the grid at peak rate. Total saving in Feb was £115.24.
Nationally, last week (18-25 March) wind and solar (green and yellow) generated 47% of UK electricity. This may surprise you - most people think renewables are still insignificant at a national level. Largely as a result of good wind generation, the average wholesale cost across the week was 92.45 per MWhr, or just 9p per unit (kWhr) . The current cost of of electricity is 34p per unit, retail. Someone, somewhere is making an absolute killing….
