N’ere cast a clout till May is out

Out for a wander today on the wee back roads on the outskirts of home and as I wandered I was reminded of this poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as spring—
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy pear tree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

I couldn’t agree more 🙂

When I was young I enveloped myself in the rush of spring and early summer, sprinting between the boring bits as fast as I could. As I get older I see I missed great chunks of the annual throb and gurgle as life gets the wrinkles out of it’s underwear after 4 months of doing precious little. It is fascinating now to wander, usually alone, along quiet roads and farm lanes at a pedestrian 3 or 4 mph and let my eyes drift. Every now and then I see something that makes me stop and wonder and now I have a camera it is these moments of wonder that I try to record.

One of the plants that is “doing it’s thing” just now is the May Thorn … now there is an old old expression “Cast n’ere a clout till may is out” Now various meanings have been put forward as to what this means but the one that makes most sense is “Dont start your ploughing until the May Thorn is is Bloom”  So given that it is well and truly in bloom now … let the clouting begin!