March

Hareshaw Linn has a special quality that you can feel at this time of year. The woodland feels accomplished and ready to welcome spring. It isn’t abundance but emptiness which gives the energy , a quiet stillness of readiness but allowing for it to emerge by itself.

The woodland invites you deeper to discover its hidden beauty and after all the rain moss and alien like lichen are shown everywhere in its splendour and although shy there are fungus to be found , new and old.

Seeing beauty in everything expands your mind and opens your heart. How can a multi coloured catkin , a wrinkly old rose hip , resilient knapweed , dried hawthorn bushes dangling where they are not supposed to be , old leaves found stuck in other tree branches not be worthy of your time. Why wouldn’t they be as beautiful ?

Hidden in corners are new life , green shoots which will soon explode into a mass of green covering up the woodland. They are equuisite to see know , to see the strength and energy close up , punching for light. Of course , by now , Snowdrops are clumping in patches and daffodils starting to form flowers.