Seasonal bliss

Whether it is admiring perfection at Royal Windsor and Chelsea or pursuing the bounty of river and hedge-bank. May is a busy month for Neil and Serena Cross

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THERE'S ALMOST too much happening in May to fully take it all in. It’s the month when the world really wakes up from the often unreliable period between the end of the shooting season and the summer. That treacherous, seasonal interloper that can so often bathe the garden in warm rays, only to then chuck in a few nights of frost to blacken new shoots and then follow it up with an Atlantic gale and a fortnight of heavy rain.

But May sees an end to all that and the country diary is reset. Hunt staff change over on the first of the month and rooks fledge on the 13th. The horse chestnut lights its candles and offers a blast of verdancy at the same time, and all life seems refreshed by the middle of the month. This was the time when, as a young Horse-Gunner, I looked forward to the Royal Windsor Horse Show. After a spring of mounted drills on Wormwood Scrubs, we deployed to Windsor to perform the Musical Drive in that hallowed arena, in front of the most discerning audience on Earth. The thrill of riding through Home Park to the showground then waiting in the chute to enter the arena remains alive in my memory, as does the sensation of marching past the Royal Box in perfect line before galloping out at full tilt.