The Countryside in May

The beginning of the month saw only the willow and the hawthorn trees in full leaf, but there followed a mad two-week rush by the rest to clothe themselves in their green finery. All except the oak and the ash, and they are only now, mid month, starting to come into leaf, although there have been the conspicuous ash flowers on the otherwise bare branches. We have a weather rhyme, which goes as follows, "Oak before Ash, only a splash; Ash before Oak, surely a soak." Which means that if the Ash comes into leaf first, the summer will be wet, and if the Oak comes first, then the summer will have little rain!

_{Children dancing round the Maypole}

Blossom trees have been magnificent, with ornamental cherries in towns sporting masses of pink frothy flowers. After a few hot days, these sadly are losing petals rapidly, but are being replaced by the splendid and fragrant lilacs and the brilliant yellow laburnum.

Away from the town the hawthorn hedges and trees are awash with white blossom, which swathes the branches from top to bottom, a truly beautiful sight.

_Primrose

Before May began, we had begun to see cowslips and primroses, but these increased, and were joined in the woods by carpets of bluebells and the garlic scented Ransoms or Wild Garlic. It has been a good year for violets; there have been many in the woods and gardens, and even growing up through lawns! There were also the delicate fragile flowers of the white (and sometimes pink) wood anemones covering the ground beneath the trees.

_Bluebells

Gorse bushes (furze) have had more flowers than we have ever seen before, and the scent of an area of these yellow pea-like blooms makes a walk in the countryside quite unforgettable.

_Dandelion

Dandelions are having a very successful year; they have overtaken fields and roadsides, and there have been no shortage for winemaking, (although it does take a couple of hours to strip the yellow from the green for enough to make wine!!) The traditional time for gathering dandelions is April 23rd, but this year they were at their best a little later here.

_{Morris dancers on the Green}

The young corn in the fields and the grasses, are all very green before they start to send up flower stalks, and the cattle have now all been turned out to grass, in the knowledge that the main growth has started in earnest.

We heard the cuckoo for the first time on May 6th, and could then tell ourselves that Summer really had arrived!!

_{Cows and Calves out to grass}

_{The Village Green}