The Awthorn

Smithers hasn’t felt brilliant today, so we’ve had a fairly quiet day, with just a short stroll on the Green to drink in the fresh air and bask in the warmth of the early sunshine.

While Smithers had a sit down on a bench and watched the world (and all the dog walkers) go by, I took my camera for a brisk walk around the Green, thrilled to see the first blackthorn and cherry plum blossoms on several of the gnarled trees dotted around, and to hear the glorious birdsong all around me.

John Clare can always be relied upon to sum up nature in his own inimitable way (and spelling!):

I love the awthorn well 
The first green thing 
In woods & hedges — black thorn dell 
Dashed with its green first spring 
When sallows shine in golden shene 
These white thorn places in the black how green. 

How beautifully green 
Though March has but begun 
To tend primroses planted in the sun 
The roots thats further in 
Are not begun to bud or may be just begun. 

I love the white thorn bough 
Hung over the mole hill 
Where the spring feeding cow 
Rubs off the dew drop chill 
When on the cowslip pips & glossy thorn 
The dews hang shining pearls at early morn.

The Awthorn by John Clare 1845