Of course you have to apoligise to Mother Elder while taking her flowers or berries.

This is the time, too, for making gorse flower wine - same recipe as elderflower, and careful when picking the blossoms, for obvious reasons.

The first time a friend of mine tasted this - it having been aged till the next blossoming (in other words, three months) as is recommended - he was sitting on the lawn outside his mountain home. "Not very strong," he said after drinking a judicious glass, then passed out for 20 minutes.