Country diary: the hedgerows are transformed, as if by magic

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: They are common, we are hedged in by them and yet the hawthorn has such a powerful link with imaginations of the pastSoft weather, sun and rain, cool and moody in the quiet byways: this is meteorological autumn and the hawthorns have gone through a metamorphosis; the lanes are full of bright red berries.Now it is no longer the "may tree" and the hermaphrodite sex magic of spring blossom has spent all summer creating fruit, these trees and bushes are lighting up the landscape again. Continue reading...