{"id":5771,"date":"2015-03-24T11:51:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T11:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=5771"},"modified":"2015-03-24T11:53:20","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T11:53:20","slug":"sign-of-spring-blackthorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=5771","title":{"rendered":"Sign of spring &#8211; blackthorn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning on my walk from home in Easton to the Bristol Wireless lab in Bedminster, my eye was caught by blackthorn blossom standing out white against the blue sky.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5772\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5772\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2015\/03\/blackthorn_blossom.jpg\" alt=\"blackthorn blossom\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5772\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2015\/03\/blackthorn_blossom.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2015\/03\/blackthorn_blossom-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5772\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blackthorn blossom in Lawford&#8217;s Gate, Bristol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Blackthorn (<em>prunus spinosa<\/em>) derives its name from its thorny nature and its very dark bark.<\/p>\n<p>As its Latin name denotes, it is a member of the plum family. Its fruits &#8211; sloes &#8211; are well known for their bitterness, unless picked after they&#8217;ve been bletted, i.e. attacked by autumn frosts. Their best-known use is for making <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sloe_gin\">sloe gin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5773\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5773\" style=\"width: 599px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2015\/03\/sloe.jpg\" alt=\"photo of sloes\" width=\"599\" height=\"449\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5773\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2015\/03\/sloe.jpg 599w, https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/sites\/23\/2015\/03\/sloe-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, 599px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5773\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sloes. Note the thorns. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The modern English word <em>sloe<\/em> comes from the Old English <em>sl\u0101h<\/em>. The same word is noted in Middle Low German, historically spoken in Lower Saxony. Similar words are found in other languages with Teutonic roots.<\/p>\n<p>With its savage thorns, blackthorn has traditionally been used for making a hedge against cattle or a &#8220;cattle-proof&#8221; hedge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning on my walk from home in Easton to the Bristol Wireless lab in Bedminster, my eye was caught by blackthorn blossom standing out white against the blue sky. Blackthorn (prunus spinosa) derives its name from its thorny nature and its very dark bark. As its Latin name denotes, it is a member of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[40,16,25,22],"class_list":["post-5771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","tag-bristol","tag-english-usage","tag-food","tag-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5771"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5777,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions\/5777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}