{"id":1616,"date":"2010-04-26T21:48:08","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T21:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/?p=1616"},"modified":"2010-04-26T21:50:27","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T21:50:27","slug":"a-spring-mediation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/?p=1616","title":{"rendered":"N&#8217;ere cast a clout till May is out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,helvetica; font-size: x-small;\">Nothing is so beautiful as spring\u2014<br \/>\nWhen weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;<br \/>\nThrush\u2019s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush<br \/>\nThrough the echoing timber does so rinse and wring<br \/>\nThe ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;<br \/>\nThe glassy pear tree leaves and blooms, they brush<br \/>\nThe descending blue; that blue is all in a rush<br \/>\nWith richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: verdana,geneva,helvetica; font-size: x-small;\"> <\/span>I couldn&#8217;t agree more \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>One of the plants that is &#8220;doing it&#8217;s thing&#8221; just now is the May Thorn &#8230; now there is an old old expression &#8220;Cast n&#8217;ere a clout till may is out&#8221; Now various meanings have been put forward as to what this means but the one that makes most sense is &#8220;Dont start your ploughing until the May Thorn is is Bloom&#8221;\u00a0 So given that it is well and truly in bloom now &#8230; let the clouting begin!<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1616 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF0006.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF0006-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1609\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1609'>\n\t\t\t\tClose up of May Thorn Blooms\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF00081.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF00081-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1610\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1610'>\n\t\t\t\tMay Thorn\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF00111.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF00111-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1611\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1611'>\n\t\t\t\tMay thorn\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF00192.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF00192-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1612\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1612'>\n\t\t\t\tThe humble Primrose\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF00301.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSCF00301-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1613\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1613'>\n\t\t\t\tI have no Idea what this is\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2014 When weeds, in wheels, shoot &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/?p=1616\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-old-git-wisdom","category-walkies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1620,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions\/1620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slightlydoolally.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}