I was taught an old saying "nee'r cast a clout until May is out". Roughly translated as "Don't shed any garments until the end of the month of May". But I have been made aware that the original was "Ne'er cast a clout until the May is out", 'the May' being the flowers of the Hawthorn. Looks like I just gained 10 days.
Dung Flies (Scathophagus sp.) are dung eaters when larvae and voracious predators as adults. I'd say that Dung Flies are the most successful hunters I find in the hedgerows. This one is eating pollen.
The first of the yellow Cinquefoils in this area: Creeping Cinquefoil - Potentilla reptans.
6 comments:
I love that ladybird shot - very sculptural!
The cinquefoil's a good portrait too - yellows can be really tricky in my experience.
Great shots with lovely diffused light. Love the ladybird too. I didn't know that about the hawthorn....
The official name of Hawthorn is Meidoorn, translated literally Maythorn.
No doubt Hawthorn used to be calledMay-thorn also, to distinguish it from its earlier black cousin?
(Blackthorn is called Sleedoorn, or Sleighthorn.)
Neither was flowering yet at Easter this year, or so I was told at the time. Not unusual though.
"The official name of Hawthorn is Meidoorn, translated literally Maythorn."
Official where?...Holland?
"Neither was flowering yet at Easter this year, or so I was told at the time. Not unusual though."
Around here, Blackthorn will always be in flower at easter, whereas Hawthorn won't flower until a few weeks after.
The local colloquial name for Hawthorn is 'Halfthorn'.
In Holland, indeed. Moved to West Cork in 1983 from Utrecht, Holland.
We are spoilt here, in that Black thorn was already out in the late March. And yes, Hawthorn is of course later.
Love both of them.
(For my mum's cremation at Easter in Holland, I was trying to find branches of Blackthorn from here instead of the more usual cutflowers.
Half thorn? Where is this coming from, you think?
"Sleedoor" interesting - presumably the same root as sloe-thorn (or slaa-thorn in dialect). "Hawthorn" is I believe derived from something like "haga-thorn"= "hedge-thorn", and is also known as whitethorn - but I've never heard may-thorn as opposed to May.
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