The May (Hawthorn) is well out now. I took this photograph last week. For me this is the most evocative native shrub; the pungent scent of its open flowers never failing to take me back to my childhood in a remote village in Wiltshire (England). There was very little home work in those days (early Sixties) and the children would be out playing in the fields and hedgerows almost immediately after getting home from school.
Hawthorn in full bloom
This task took place at the beginning of the 2011/2012 conservation season (now finished) we were cutting down small isolated hawthorn and rose plants that would, if left to their own devices, shade out the grass and other flora. The site was extremely steep and we were stacking the cut scrub at the bottom – so extremely hard work (it wasn’t too bad coming down but then you had to go all the way up again!).
A Return to Coombe Bisset. Clearing hawthorn and blackthorn again but at a different site on the reserve. The views were lovely.
My Plants And Favourite Places 