Country diary: from garlic mustard, through a glat, to the pulse of spring

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Another of the places in this processional ritual was marked by a feather lodged in a blackthorn fork amid a gap in a hedgeThere are rights of way, and there are rites of way. One thing leads to another, and this way began with garlic mustard and led into the white pulse of May.Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, has toothy, nettle-like leaves that have a garlicky pong when crushed; its 120cm stem is topped with a cluster of X-shaped flowers, each of four petals, that look like little white butterflies. Continue reading...