If you found yourself reaching for a thick jumper last weekend, you were part of what is known as the blackthorn winter.
The snowy blossom of the wild plum bursts out during a cold snap. For me, it signifies the turning of the tide and is written in the mud suddenly, the ground dries up and bears the print of tractor tyres and deer before cracking into hexagonal shapes. It’s caused by the warmer weather, but, more especially, by the flora sucking up the precious water as it bursts into new leaf following months of being dormant.
If only the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary had remained dormant. As Robert Macfarlane wrote in The Guardian: ‘A sharp-eyed reader noticed that there had been a culling of words concerning nature. Under pressure, Oxford University Press revealed a list of the entries it no longer felt to be relevant to a modern-day childhood.
The deletions included acorn, adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip, cygnet, dandelion, fern, hazel, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, mistletoe, nectar, newt, otter, pasture and willow. The words taking their places in the new edition included attachment, block-graph, blog, broadband, bullet-point, celebrity, chatroom, committee, cut-and-paste, MP3 player and voice-mail… For blackberry, read BlackBerry’. How sad.
Town mouse organises his library
Town mouse enjoys spring cleaning his study.
Spectator: Lost in space
Lucy Baring blasts into space.
-
The life that thrives among the dead: How wildlife finds a home in the graveyards and churchyards of BritainHome to a veritable ‘Noah’s Ark of species’, thanks to never being ploughed, sprayed or fertilised, our churchyards offer a sacred haven for flora and fauna, says Laura Parker.
-
‘What a shame when a dinosaur disappears into the mansion of an oligarch rather than being displayed for all to enjoy’: The ethics of the dinosaur auctionFancy a stegosaurus in your living room? You can buy one at auction. But the latest luxury good is a paleontologist's worst nightmare.
