Time travel

The cuckoo called
From the hawthorn tree
He followed entranced
And found the Faery Queen.
Waylaid for a brief but blissful sojourn
He returned to the world of mortals
To find
Seven years had passed.

This is the tale of Thomas the Rhymer, the famous thirteenth century Scottish mystic and poet. In Celtic mythology, apparently, the hawthorn was the most likely tree to be inhabited or protected by faeries and could not be cut down or damaged in any way without incurring the often fatal wrath of their supernatural guardians. The Faery Queen by her hawthorn is often seen as a representation of an early Goddess-centred worship, practised by priestesses in sacred groves of hawthorn. The site of Westminster Abbey was once called Thorney Island after the sacred stand of thorn trees there.

The gorgeous, joyous hawthorn blossom is too early - it's meant to be May - but it's bursting out all over in our clifftop woods. I like seeing both the prettiness and the 'business end' of each flower, where it springs from its stalk.