July 11th – A beautiful summer’s day and the grass of Victoria Park – up until the 1930s a railway cutting – is looking scorched and brown; but no matter. This little gem of a green space right in the heart of industrial Darlaston still looks superb.
July 6th – No apparent issues with the thistles this year, however. In fact it seems a good year for them – prickly and purple, they are flowering well and in larger number than I’ve seen for a good few years – so as I suspect, water probably isn’t an issue for them like the berries, hips and haws of the hedgerows above.
The colours – from pale lavender to deep, dark purple – are always a joy. Thisles are very underrated indeed in my opinion.
July 3rd – Growing along just about every lane, track, cycleway and footpath at the moment, a very much overlooked purple wildflower.
No, not thistle, but knapweed. Similar, knapweed is not hostile or prickly, but flowers similarly in strong purple, a favourite of pollinators and a great source of high quality nectar, it’s seeds feeding many songbirds too.
Sometimes the best flowers fly under the radar.
July 1st – It was a great sunset, which I caught best from Meerash near Hammerwich.
The sunsets lately really have been excellent.
I’m also a sucker for radio transmitters and sunsets – I find something really enigmatic about them.
A great end to not the best day, but a good evening outing none the less.
July 1st – Half the year gone already. Where on earth did that go?
I was unwell after eating something I shouldn’t (Life with IBS often means interrogating people who cook for you about what ingredients they use, but sometimes, you feel embarrassed and eat anyway). The pumpkin seeds in a casserole from a friend the night before were really causing me hell, and I didn’t get out until early evening.
I met family at a country pub in Longdon for a lazy, louche, sunny Sunday evening social, riding there and back. The countryside is showing well at the moment with ripening crops and the greens going dark and maturing.
I particularly liked the lithe, stripy puss I saw in Hammerwich. – he was definitely the neighbourhood watch!
June 28th – One thing that is absolutely beautiful this year and I haven’t mentioned to my shame is the vetch. This beautiful, delicate purple flower is absolutely everywhere and very beautiful.
It’s one of my favourite summer flowers and lasts for ages, whilst growing in some of the most inhospitable edge lands.
A real summer treasure.
June 26th – Another hot and sunny day, and on the way to work, it was clear that fish has been breeding successfully in the canal at Pleck: Looking into the green water under Scarborough Road bridge, tends of thousands of tiny fry had had hatched. Further up the canal, larger fish were heading in that direction, one presumes fo lunch.
Who’d ever have thought these canals would be so green, beautiful and full of life?
June 24th – A second Sunday ride on Cannock Chase, on a much better day than the previous Sunday,. It was warm and sunny and the day languid and beautiful. A bit of an odd one, though: The curious memorial found in the forest and the stunning sun pillar in the evening gave the day and unusual, other-worldly feel.
June 23rd – Slipping out to catch the sunset after a much needed rest day, and the weather gods didn’t let me down.
I’m experimenting (again) with a new camera to me – a Canon G1X. Liking it so far but I think it may be a bit advanced for this poor snapper.
A gorgeous evening, but the sheer amount of bugs that rose all of a sudden on the dam as night fell were a bit of a trial.
June 14th – On the way to work on a warm but windy and wolfish Thursday, I stopped to look back down the canal I’d just ridden along. It’s so green and verdant now, sow beautifully limpid and peaceful. Hard to imagine that a few short weeks ago this was barren and grey, and soon enough it will return to the dormant, winter state.
Bless the summer, bless the green, bless the weather.
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