See the blackthorn swim in snow
ON drab days at the end of a long, cold winter, we become hedgerow detectives. The search is on for buds that are thickening and leaflets that are opening, clues that brighter, warmer, more colourful times lie ahead. The true change of the seasons can be a long time coming, however. Spring has many illusory dawns. A few days of genial sunshine, a mild westerly and joyful birdsong are ended abruptly by the return of the chill, the north wind whipping round
