Gorse

"When the gorse is out of flower, then kissing's out of season" goes the old proverb.

Actually, I have a suspicion that this is the sanitised Victorian version of the old proverb and that there is an even older one involving Sexual Intercourse.

Here's some gorse on Otley Chevin yesterday doing its best to validate the proverb.

For gorse, of course, flowers all year round. I love it. To me it embodies the countryside - and the best, wild bits of the countryside too. Not much else is in flower at this time of year - though I expect that after another decade of global warming there'll be sunflowers blooming on the moors in January.

Gorse flowers make an excellent dye for eggs at Easter - you just boil them in water containing the flowers and the eggs come out an orangey-yellow, depending upon the original colour of the eggs.

Gorse flowers, cold wind and blue sky - it was great on the Chevin yesterday.