White Hawthorn in the West of Ireland

I drove West

in the season between seasons.
I left behind suburban gardens.
Lawnmowers.  Small talk.
Under low skies, past splashes of coltsfoot,
I assumed
the hard shyness of Atlantic light
and the superstitious aura of hawthorn.
All I wanted then was to fill my arms with
sharp flowers,
to seem from a distance, to be part of
that ivory, downhill rush.  But I knew,
I had always known,
the custom was
not to touch hawthorn.
Not to bring it indoors for the sake of
the luck
such constraint would forfeit–
a child might die, perhaps, or an unexplained
fever speckle heifers.  So I left it
stirring on those hills
with a fluency
only water has.  And, like water, able
to redefine land.  And free to seem to be–
for anglers,
and for travellers astray in
the unmarked lights of a May dusk–
the only language spoken in those parts.
Evan Boland

I wanted to see this hawthorn tree ( a fairy tree if ever I saw one), not too long a walk from high up at Boolteenagh. It, and its slightly smaller companion, lie just outside the small ruined homestead of two bachelor brothers. We admired it, sat on rocks and contemplated it all then decided to carry on, the weather being exceptionally clement. It turned out to be quite along walk but what a wonderful one - starting up high on the spine of the peninsula, then scrambling down past a lake (sedge warblers, thank you Merlin), onto a dirt track and then into a very fertile valley before climbing up sharply towards the end. We were accompanied by skylarks and stonechats and small green hairstreaks. The wildflowers were astounding - bog bean and bog cotton up high, with a swathe of colour in the lower hedgerows - pink foxgloves, ragged robins,  yellow trefoil, blue speedwell and  white ox eye daisies. But its the hawthorn that is enchanting and jaw-dropping, clouds of it everywhere filling the air with its odd slightly cat's pissish aroma. 
It was blissful and fortunately, thinking we might just go for it, I had thrown some cheese and biscuits into my backpack!
That was us for the day really but we did manage to go down for a swim later on - yes, it's sort of warming up!