Past its Best

It is past its best and I very nearly walked right past it early this morning. Then I had to photograph it in my own shade. It is wild hawthorn and is growing alongside some willows on the Taylor River tracks. I photographed these lovely blossoms a few days ago without giving too much thought to what sort of tree they were growing on. We visited the O’Connors at Brooksdale yesterday and photographed their beautiful double pink hedged hawthorn. That is when the penny dropped and I realised that the lovely white blossoms I had spotted the other day were hawthorn.
Many years ago when we were living in England we visited Glastonbury…. Not the famous music festival but as visitors to the ruins of the Abbey there. I was fascinated with the story of Joseph of Arimathea who in legends was reputed to have planted his staff in the ground near the site of the future Abbey. The staff took root and grew into the Glastonbury Holy Thorn tree. The descendants (if that is the term) of that original tree still flourish in the Glastonbury area today. We bought some Glastonbury pottery with the image of the sacred thorn tree embossed on it. I still have a piece of it ……somewhere…..