141.
Another day with beautiful weather and builders in the garden. The hawthorn tree at the corner of my garden only got half of a reprieve as one half of it had to be cut down to make way for the new driveway. The remaining half has been overwhelmed by ivy, which has since been cut at the roots, so which will soon begin to wither on the vine. The hard part in saving the hawthorn has yet to come, as I will have to pull all of the dead ivy out of the tree and hope that the hawthorn, once freed from the strangulation, will be able to recover. I think that I may have to call on the services of a tree surgeon. The man charged with mutilating the tree was reluctant to do so, although I think that his reluctance had less to do with superstition than it had to do with preferring not to have to bother. Nevertheless, it is said that it is bad luck to cut down a hawthorn tree, unless doing so for medicinal purposes (apparently the berries, flowers and leaves all have medicinal qualities). The fairies, who are reputed to favour hawthorns (which are reincarnated witches, so it is said) for their homes, according to ancient Celtic folklore, don't appreciate their homes being destroyed to make way for fences. The berries on display here are from another tree in my garden - one that is not so useful medicinally, but which, nonetheless, has much Celtic folklore and superstition attached to it. The rowan's berries are amazing things: they start off bright yellow, then turn bright red, then black, then they fall to the ground. This is my PaD because the HAWTHORN pictures didn't turn out too well.