It was a day of blustery sleet showers with towering clouds alternating with blue sky and sometimes an occasional rainbow. Most of the blackthorn flowers are still in tight buds so it was surprising to see a mass of white Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) completely in flower as it will be well into April before the others close by are open.  Eventually the flowers will become little purply blue hard sloes in autumn which are often collected to make sloe gin.  The white blossom emerges before the leaves and contrasts with the sharp long black thorns on the branches.  The shrub is ideal in hedging for keeping animals within the fields due to its dense thorny branches although here the field seems to have been arable for many years.