Hawthorn grove
- jonchinn
- Oct 21
- 4 min read
I am landscape.
A place to think
As I lie here
I travel downwards
Through soil and rock
My skin connected
With the Earth
My skin
Another layer
Of the Earth
I am Landscape
I contain all life
I contain all history of life
Four Hawthorns in a grove. A rare haven. Shelter. Chance taken. Once seeds clung on to grow. A new green. Shaped by the wind. A church to reflect in. Trees as vertical islands of though. Roots locked into the earth. Shoots searching for the sun. Connections and reconnections: learning and making a new language with the landscape.
‘For a moment trees lose their anchor in solid earth. They are floating wavering, shimmering , more aerial and pure and wild than birds or any visible thing, than aught except music and the fantasies of the brain, The mind takes flight and hovers among the leaves with whatsoever powers it has akin to dew and trembling larks song and rippling water; it is throbbed away not only above ponderous earth but below the firmament in the middle world of footless fancies and half thoughts that drift hither and thither and know neither a heaven or a home. “
Edward Thomas – The South Country (1909)
I lie on the ground within the 4 Hawthorn trees. I expand like a liquid poured. Outward. Familiar embrace. Soaking into the soil. A moment of detail and abstract thought. My mind is a stone skipping over the water, connection on impact with the surface. Realization. I am layer of the Earth. Connected again. Our separation could only be temporary.
I am the White Goddess of Hawthorn, Olwen, walking the universe, leaving a white track of Hawthorn petals as stars. Focuses of energy. light.
The name Olwen means "white footprint” or "white track". White flowers grow in her footprints as she passes. The milky way. The name Olwen suggests she was once a Sun Goddess. The gods changed to suit the needs of the people who make them up I suppose.
Olwen is the daughter of the giant/ Ogre Ysbaddaden from the story “Culhwch and Olwen” found in the Mabinogion collection of Welsh/ Celtic prose. These form the Welsh Arthurian stories. "Olwen" is also a character in the non-Arthurian folktale “Einion and Olwen” where a sheep herder travels to the Otherworld to marry Olwen. The Einion and Olwen story tells of Einion’s meeting with Ysbaddaden (which means hawthorn too) Olwen’s father, and the setting and completion of 39 tasks if they are to be married.
The story has been interpreted as the conflict and switch from Bran related prehistory belief systems in Wales (I’m desperately trying to make a joke about roughage and regularity, but it shall not pass) and the Arthurian wave of Christianity. Spin doctoring for the locals. Olwen the ancient solar Goddess reappropriated for the new cause. The path of light from winter. New life tied in with elements of the old familiar stories but better. Nothing changes.
The Tasks completed, (including hunting boar, retrieving cauldrons from the underworld and killing the father of the bride as you do) Einion and Olwen were married on May Day: the beginning of the Celtic summer half of the year. Ysbaddaden was decapitated. In the autumn, Hawthorn drips red berries like his blood. The old year that has passed away, making way for the new.
Olwen is the inspiration to complete the tasks and heal the world bring hope with the return of the sun with spring.
The common Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, a member of the rose family can support more than 300 species of insect. Its berries, or haws, are a food source for migrating birds like Redwings, Fieldfares and Thrushes. Stopping points for food and stillness. Markers. Critical for food and shelter and scratching. Horses, cow and sheep have often returned to spots as part of their cultural relationship with the landscape.
One of the locals. The Hawthorn Moth (Scythropia crataegella). Adult Hawthorn moths are relatively small with a wingspan of eleven to fifteen millimetres. Hawthorn Moths are common in the southern half of Britain. Adults flying about in July. The larvae feed communally in a silken web after mining through the leaves.
Larger Hawthorn have grown in the craters of former mining exploration. Sheltered for the wind or grazing. Some of these are bomb craters. The old mine works between Stowe hill and Gold Diggin’s quarry used as bombing target practice in World War two by the RAF. These scars of the actions of men in the ground. The area is now a UNESCO world heritage site. Ironically for mining. Craddock moor is one of the best preserved Bronze age sacred landscapes in Europe too. Oh and an area of outstanding natural beauty. Bombs away.
I see large nests too. Isolated but in a tree at least. Believe it or not, Squirrels in the only tree for a hundred yards. Ground ranging. The dog checks isolated Hawthorn trees for Squirrels now. He saw one once. Six months ago.
The Hawthorn flowers after it’s leaves have grown in the Spring. Hawthorn blossom has Trimethylamine in it. A chemical formed in decaying animal tissue. Insect pollinators that visit are those attracted by carrion too. I have said previously the moor is a place of rocks, shit and death. It is.
The Hawthorn has long been associated with hedging and enclosure. Sanctuary. Patience and stillness Plant one or find one. Give it a hug.
"Not much to me is yonder lane
Where I go every day;
But when there’s been a shower of rain
And hedge-birds whistle gay,
I know my lad that’s out in France
With fearsome things to see
Would give his eyes for just one glance
At our white hawthorn tree."
Siegfried Sassoon - The Hawthorn Tree
Things to do refs and further reading
Hawthorn is one of the target flowers to carry out a Flower-Insect (FIT) Count
The Mabinogion, from the Llyfr Coch o Hergest and Other Ancient Welsh Manuscripts; with an English Translation and Notes by Lady Charlotte Guest. Part IV. Containing Kilhwch and OlwenPublication Recor. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1849. p. 320.
The Book of Taliesin at the National Library of Wales
Rate this stuff Jon. Conections to your landscapes resonate.
Chucking this out for 2026 for a group show some may be Falmouth some may be London Met some may be great photographers Ive come across over the last 30 odd years, All are gifted.
Will start with a zoom chat or two. Up fer it?
Best
TIM