May is one of my favourite months for photography. It brings three things I look forward to every year: bluebells, cow parsley and hawthorn blossom. The hedgerows seem to change almost overnight, filling with frothy white flowers, while the garden grows greener by the day. Even when the weather is unseasonably wet and windy, there’s a particular loveliness to this time of year. The light softens, the evenings grow longer and familiar places suddenly look quite different. It’s become something of a tradition to photograph the beauty of May each year. My camera is never far away, ready to capture the flowers, the changing light and those little details that make me stop and look twice.
Bluebells in the woodland
At the beginning of May, we made our annual pilgrimage to the bluebell wood at Portglenone, a visit I particularly enjoy sharing with my dad.
The weather forecast wasn’t promising, but we made the journey anyway. Even the drizzle couldn’t spoil the sight of that beautiful blue haze carpeting the woodland floor. There’s something rather magical about bluebells growing in their thousands beneath the trees, softening the woodland with their colour.
I never tire of photographing them. Every visit offers something a little different: the way the flowers gather between the tree trunks, the contrast of blue against fresh green leaves, or the occasional shaft of light finding its way through the canopy.
It’s one of those seasonal sights that reminds me why I love having a camera with me. Sometimes the best photographs come from returning to a familiar place and simply noticing what’s changed.
For the love of cow parsley
By the middle of May, the cow parsley is usually in full flower, spilling over hedgerows and lining country roads. I’m not sure this humble plant always received quite so much attention, but these days a quick scroll through Instagram reveals countless photographs of its delicate, frothy flower heads.
I sometimes wonder whether Monty Don has something to do with its popularity. His writing garden at Longmeadow makes beautiful use of the lightness of cow parsley in spring. In My Garden World, he writes:
‘There is nothing in this world so beautiful as cow parsley on a May evening beneath uncut hedges of may blossom. Nothing, outside the arms of those you love, that so exactly fulfills the promise of the reasons to be alive‘
It’s a sentiment I find hard to disagree with. Cow parsley is one of the most photogenic flowers I know, with its intricate white blooms and wonderfully loose, natural shape.
I don’t have to travel far to photograph it. The hedgerows outside my front door are full of it, although I also love visiting Antrim Castle Gardens, where the woodland becomes a sea of white flowers every May.
What I enjoy most is how something so ordinary can become extraordinary when you take the time to look. The flowers catch the light, the background falls softly out of focus, and suddenly a familiar roadside becomes a beautiful photographic subject.
Hawthorn blossom and the evening light
As May draws to a close, it’s the hawthorn blossom that steals the show.
Huge boughs of white flowers line the road where I take Boris for his evening walk. Our walks are a slow affair because he likes to stop and sniff almost everything. I don’t mind. It’s his walk, after all, not mine.
Those pauses give me time to notice the hawthorn blossom, the delicate flowers against the darker hedgerows and the lovely dappled light that seems to make everything glow at this time of year.
There’s something especially beautiful about hawthorn in the evening. The flowers soften the landscape, and the low sunlight brings out the textures and shapes of the branches. It’s a reminder that you don’t always need to travel somewhere spectacular to find something worth photographing.
Sometimes it’s right there on your doorstep, waiting for you to slow down.
Finding beauty in the everyday
One of the things I love about photographing the changing seasons is that there’s always something to look forward to. The bluebells arrive, the cow parsley takes over the hedgerows, and then the hawthorn blossom appears in all its glory.
These flowers are familiar sights, but I never seem to tire of them. Each year brings different weather, different light and new opportunities to see them in another way.
For me, photography is as much about noticing as it is about taking pictures. It’s about finding beauty in the everyday, returning to places I love and paying attention to the small details that might otherwise pass me by.
May is full of those moments. I only have to remember to take my camera.
Thanks for stopping by,
Paula
More seasonal stories from Typewriter Girl
Lovely photos as always. Boris sounds like a very mindful chap, we really could learn a lot from pets and children about slowing down and noticing all the little interests around us. Must admit cow parsley is one of those plants I tend to overlook, though it reminds me of my childhood as it grew wild everywhere. Hope you’re well. X
Yes I think you are absolutely right…pets and children can teach us a lot about connecting with nature. Yes I’m good. Hope you and yours are keeping well too x
Love the first of bluebells….looks like it’s straight out of a storybook! We have an abundance of cow parsley where we live also….o have always been amazed at how delicate the flower looks but how hardy they actually are! ❤️
Yes thats so true…it is really hardy actually…seems to last forever…which is no bad thing !
You are so right about May being filled with these beautiful flowers. I have definitely noticed Cow Parsley more than usual this year, it seems to be everywhere. X
What dreamy images! I would love to visit a bluebell wood one day! I don’t think we have any in Australia, unless someone purposefully planted one.
Thank you very much Laura. Yes, I feel quite lucky to live close to one…the sight of all those bluebells is quite magical., although Australia has plenty of its own magical sights Im sure !