Janet Heeran

Drier springs cause the trees to focus on pollen production, since the air is not heavy with moisture and the wind can do the work of the bees.

You might notice some white flowers turn pink, a sign that pollination has occurred.

And there's the added bonus of tasting the start of summer if you can lay your hands on white thorn honey.

A lone white thorn tree has great power.

As a child, I knew never to bring a branch of it into the house, no matter how pretty the blossom might look in a vase.

It would bring bad luck, even death.

Also, the fairies use lone white thorn trees or fairy trees as a gateway to their world.

So you may be cursed if you cut one down.

The new market on Fergus to Ennis Bypass was rerouted to avoid knocking a fairy tree.

And soon the petals will fall like snow, covering the roads and the fields and turning another page in the book of the year.