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Blackthorn folklore is easier to recognise in autumn and winter than in a May hedgerow. Its blue-black sloes, hard thorny wood and association with cold snaps give it a cultural life quite different from hawthorn. The same shrub can still surprise in…
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Hawthorn blossom looks as though it ought to belong in a vase. To understand hawthorn blossom indoors, it helps to begin with an old contradiction. The same flowering branches that belonged comfortably to May weather and outdoor celebration could acquire a very…
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Few British trees are as ordinary in the landscape and as complicated in folklore as hawthorn. To understand hawthorn in British folklore, it helps to begin with the hedge itself: practical, thorned, seasonal and impossible to separate from the places where people…
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