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By the fence in front of a house in Westoning I found poached egg plant,
Limnanthes douglasii. It's an old-fashioned, easy-to-grow annual.
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Here we come to the flower in the title of this page, the hawthorn, Crataegus
monogyna. Crataegus is Latin for hard. It refers to the wood which
was used for hammer shafts in times past.
Hawthorn has many different common names. Whitethorn and May are two
common ones.
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More hawthorn. In British folklore the flowers are linked to May Day,
the holiday on the first day of May. It was considered unlucky to bring
hawthorn into the house on any day of the year except May Day.
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| There are a number of pink-flowering hawthorn cultivars but
the pink flowers also occur naturally on trees in the wild every now and
then. This is one of those. The pink is a lot less strident than on the
ones sold in nurseries. |
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Okay, this is the last close-up. I just wish I could have
captured the scent too. It's a creamy, dreamy, sweet scent that speaks of
Sunday afternoons on dusty country lanes. |
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| A lot more prosaic is this view back towards Westoning across
the railway line. I took a very similar picture last time I was here. |
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This is a little further along the road and looking in a south-easterly
direction. |
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| Across the fields we see an oak. The leaf colour is still
pretty fresh because it has only been leafed for a month or so. |
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Lower Sampshill Farm is nestled among the foliage. |
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Looking across the fields with flowering buttercups, we see the aptly
named Sharpenhoe. Usually I remove electricity lines like the one in this
picture but I found that it added something here so I left it in.
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I think this photo illustrates why England is sometimes referred
to as "a green and pleasant land". |
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Through a gap in the hedge we see a solitary oak tree. Last time I was
here, I photographed
it without the framing foliage.
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The byway between Upper Sampshill Farm and Grange village
is not in much use. This is looking back up towards Sampshill. |
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And this is looking forward towards Grange.
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The two trees that shelter in the saddle between the hills
look a lot more cheerful today than in November
2000. |
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| This is the result of an experiment, trying to capture the
essence of Queen Anne's lace. It is such a frothy, lacy flower that usually
appears in great stands like this one. Even though the picture isn't technically
perfect I still think it conveys the feeling of walking through a bubble-bath
of flowers. |
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The fresh leaves of one of my favourite oaks still let through
a lot of light at this time of year. When I shot this picture in November
2000, the few remaining leaves
were brown and there wasn't a whole lot of light. |
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Nearby a flowering hawthorn and another oak form a pretty frame. Only
problem is that the frame is filled with a monotonous green field.
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Two oaks form a portal beneath a brilliant blue sky. |
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In a field a rather young oak stands all alone. Last time I shot it,
it was from another angle.
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There is Sharpenhoe again, in the background behind the oaks.
It really dominates the landscape. |
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| A closer look at the oaks along the path. |
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Further on there is a solid wall of foliage and flower on
one side of the path. |
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For once the sky was blue. Still it wasn't empty, it was dotted with
fluffy little clouds like this one.
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We've come to the end of the walk. The weather has turned
cloudy again but here's a bench to rest on. |
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