A FEW days ago, we took a short break in a city centre hotel and at breakfast on our first morning, we were delighted to hear a chaffinch in full song.

His distinctive voice rose above the distant hum of rush-hour traffic and I must admit it was a real tonic, particularly as we were in a busy city and because it was so unexpected.

A few minutes later, his voice was drowned by dozens of house sparrows chirping and arguing, and I was reminded of our bird-feeding station at home. This attracts scores of noisy sparrows who don't seem to fight among themselves, but who do tend to make an enormous commotion as they eat.

And then the noise of the sparrows faded to the sound of a blackbird singing, followed by ducks quacking in the background - and then I realised the truth. We were listening to a record of country sounds because church bells could soon be heard in the distance, then there was the shouted "Howzat" of cricketers during a match, and a cow lowing somewhere, with a newborn lamb bleating ...

Instead of playing the radio or one of those noisy tapes of pop music, we were treated to the sounds of the countryside over breakfast, and I could see from the faces of the other guests that they were delighted. It was such a pleasurable start to the day - just like being at home in fact.

THE blackthorn is one of those trees which seems not to have quite got things right because its blossom appears some time ahead of its foliage, and often in winter too. Most - but not all - of our trees produce their leaves some weeks ahead of the flowers and so the blackthorn is rather distinctive at this time of year.

It can be seen in many of our hedgerows and woodlands, its bare black and very thorny branches smothered in thick white blossom, the black and white being powerful contrasts. It can flower in March although in many cases, the blossom does not appear until this time of the year.

As mere humans we should not complain or worry about this - the tree has been around long enough to know its own mind, although some rural folks believe it flowers far too early. Nonetheless, it does attract insects which pollinate the flowers and so, being among the first in the queue, it does benefit from nature's helping hand in the same way as other trees. The white flowers are very attractive, looking rather like some species of cherry and similar to the flowers of the hawthorn.

The wood is also highly distinctive. For one thing it is a very dark colour, looking a dull black from a distance, but among its features are the long, very strong and sharp thorns which protrude from its tangled branches. This makes the tree seem very tightly formed; in fact, those thorns make it almost impregnable which in turn makes it popular with nesting birds and sheltering animals. It is also a formidable barrier to large domestic animals like cattle and horses, and it deters humans too.

One of its advantages is that it does not grow very tall - it is an ideal hedge plant and perfect for marking one's boundaries.

Because most of its wood grows in fairly short, slender lengths, its timber has few commercial benefits but it is very hard, it is tough and it can produce a wonderful polish or shine. Sadly, it is too small to be considered in furniture manufacture but a length of blackthorn can be fashioned into a marvellous, knobbly walking stick and this is the wood from which the Irish shillelagh is made. I believe cudgels were also made from the thicker sections of the trunk, while the smaller pieces are ideal for making prongs for hay-rakes.

Its very thorny nature has led to a belief that Christ's crown of thorns was made from this tree, but it is just one of many which have been given this doubtful reputation. Experts suggest there are twenty-two words in the Bible which signify plants of a thorny nature and one of them is a tree - the Zizyphus Spina Christi - which seems to be the favourite as the origin of that infamous crown. In addition to having spines rather like the blackthorn, the zizyphus was pliable enough to be twisted into a mock crown; it's unlikely the blackthorn branches could be moulded in that manner.

It was this legend which gave the blackthorn a rather ominous reputation for evil. Some said it blossomed at midnight on Old Christmas Eve while in Hertfordshire, local people would make a crown of thorns from its wood on New Year's morning, hold it in a fire until it was scorched, and then hang it near the mistletoe as a bringer of good luck. In other counties, a blackthorn crown was made on New Year's Day, taken to a cornfield and burnt to ashes, the ashes being scattered over the ground which would produce the new crop.

Quite naturally, it became a widespread belief that this was an unlucky plant and so it was rarely, if ever, brought into the house. Some used to believe it was an omen of death, the black colour of its wood adding to this supposition. Another old saying is "blackthorn winter" - this is when a spell of severe weather, usually accompanied by very cold east winds, occurs while the blackthorn is in bloom.

The tree will not be leafless for much longer, however. As the flowers fade, the leaves will open to cover those black branches and then, in the autumn, the tree will bear its famous blue-black plum-like fruit, the sloe. With a wonderful bloom upon their skins, they look delicious and tempting, but in fact they are extremely bitter to the taste, even when ripe.

Nonetheless, they are collected for domestic use - they're wonderful as the pink coloured sloe-gin, and are tasty when made into jam or even wine. Some authorities believe sloes are the ancestors of domestic plum trees, the greengage in particular, while varieties of the wild blackthorn are cultivated for parks, gardens and estates, all guaranteed to produce a lush covering of colourful blossom.

The wild variety, however, does have different names in other parts of the country - they include blackhaw, buckthorn, bullen, bullison, bullister, pig-in-the-hedge, scrogg, slaathorn, snag bush and slon bush, although blackthorn appears to be the most widespread. In addition, of course, there is a type of wild plum tree, sometimes known as the bullace; this was once cultivated but the wealth and varieties of modern plum has caused the bullace to be almost forgotten.

ALTHOUGH we are in the season of spring, the weather lore for this period warns us against unwelcome events. One old saying, for example, reminds us that April wears a white cap - that is a reminder that frosts might occur - and this is reinforced by a French saying: "It is not April without a frosty crown."

If there is thunder in April, however, some believe it heralds the end of frost for that year, while winds in April mean a bountiful harvest of hay and corn in the following autumn. Some landowners believe that snow is welcome in April because it acts as a kind of manure, taking nutrients from the air and ground, then carrying them deep into the earth as the snow thaws. A more local belief is that "A dry April is not the farmer's will; April wet is what he'll get!" while a cold April is often seen as a good sign, being the herald of full barns in the autumn.

It is widely accepted, however, that April can produce sunshine and showers almost at the same time and most of us have heard the saying that "April showers bring forth May flowers", but if the first three days of April are foggy, then it will rain in June to make the lanes and fields boggy!

A similar saying suggests that if those first three days are foggy, then we can expect floods in June.

ON the subject of fog, the dialect word for a mist is roak, roke or rawk. A variant of this is the sea-roak which is also termed a sea-fret, this being a heavy type of fog, often moving at speed with the wind. Sea-roaks do venture inland but it seems they seldom stay for very long! And, of course, a misty night is otherwise known as a rawky neet - not the ideal time to venture upon the moors