The Flight Of The Bee Fly

The blackthorn is at its best and I particularly wanted to include it in today's blip. I read the other day that The Royal Horticultural Society has said, "Spring could be over 'in the blink of an eye' so enjoy blooms while you can." I've enjoyed the plum blossom which has gone over now. Prompted by Robert Macfarlane I've been reading Dennis Potter's last interview with Melvyn Bragg which took place on March 15th 1994 when Potter was dying of cancer. I found it in The Guardian online. "Below my window in Ross, when I'm working in Ross, for example, there at this season, the blossom is out in full now, there in the west early. It's a plum tree, it looks like apple blossom but it's white, and looking at it, instead of saying "Oh that's nice blossom" ... last week looking at it through the window when I'm writing, I see it is the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be, and I can see it. Things are both more trivial than they ever were, and more important than they ever were, and the difference between the trivial and the important doesn't seem to matter. But the nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous, and if people could see that, you know. There's no way of telling you; you have to experience it, but the glory of it, if you like, the comfort of it, the reassurance ... not that I'm interested in reassuring people - bugger that. The fact is, if you see the present tense, boy do you see it! And boy can you celebrate it." 

I look forward to seeing the blackthorn blossom and am always sad when it starts to fade. I console myself that the May blossom and the sheep's parsley will follow. When they're finished I get a downhill feeling. This year I'm going to revel in the 'whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be' and in the 'nowness' of it. It looked so beautiful against the blue sky earlier it brought a lump to my throat. 


A few butterflies visited the blackthorn in our hedge today but it was quite windy and they didn't linger. My image is of a bee fly flying in.