October 21st – A blustery, showery day, so I restricted myself to a short ride around the patch, washing through the leaves shaken free by the storm. At the new pond at Clayhanger, I noticed a healthy, beautiful holly bush with a dense crop of berries growing in the marsh at the back of the pool. That’s a sign Christmas is coming, for sure.
Autumn has been strange this year. It’s like we fell out of summer with a bump and kept bouncing off winter with no transition…
August 9th – But later, I had to go to Telford, and whilst the air of melancholy remained, I couldn’t remain miserable. The weather was heavy, but there was beauty in it, even in the doomed footbridge at Telford Station, which despite it’s faults was a lot drier than the New Street Station I’d come through earlier.
Berries and apples glistened with raindrops. Water dripped from leaf and roof. It was quiet, but softly musical.
The rain doesn’t care for my despair.
However bad the weather, life must go on. And so it it does.
August 1st – So, it’s August and we’re coasting steadily through high summer into autumn, as signified by a rash of sudden fruiting; the harvest has started and has been paused due to rains – but everywhere, blackberries are darkening, apples are swelling, berries are becoming plump and all manner of hips, haws and funny are maturing nicely.
On my way to work on a pleasant, sunny morning, I noticed the crimson red of hawthorn berries darkening in the hedgerows and thickets. Bitter and woody, these berries will last long enough to carry many songbirds through winter.
I just have no idea where this year has gone…
June 28th – A miserable wet day, but thankfully, I mostly managed to avoid the worst of the rain. Although not great for me, it’ll be good to swell the rapidly growing fruits by the wayside.
How quickly we move to the fruiting phase of summer: Rowan berries, cherries, haws and all manner of delights are now developing steadily and beginning to ripen.
A genuine delight on a dreadful morning, but where the hell is summer slipping away to?
May 8th – The one blossom that’s always overlooked, but is actually beautiful is Elder; elderflowers of course make great wine and soft drinks,not to mention the berries but the blooms look pretty too, and smell divine – all the more welcome as often elder grows in margins, edgelands and waste ground otherwise considered ugly.
Here on the cycleway at Goscote there’s a prolific and strong showing of the creamy white blossom which most be a good sign for the home-brew types this year too.
July 7th – Summer’s wheel continues to turn, despite the poor weather, and I was shocked today to note that the rowan berries on the trees by the cycleway in Pelsal were beginning to ripen.
One of the earlier berries of the summer, they add a lovely splash of orange colour to the maturing greenery of high summer.
With days now getting shorter, it really feels like the year is advancing fast now.
November 4th – In the afternoon, I again passed by these fascinating berries I recorded last week. Thanks to the genius of Susan Marie Ward, I can tell you that they’re actually a type of crab apple.
Yes, you read that right. A gosh-darned crab apple.
Read about this fascinating shrub here. Nature is amazing sometimes.
Thanks to Susan for that.
September 3rd – I took to the canal on the way home, and observed that red appears to be the colour of choice for the season – a whole host of red berries, from honeysuckle, to ripening blackberries, to haws and hips are all doing well. I did wonder, however, what the very glossy red berries were – the ones with the very leathery leaves. There’s about twice the size of a pea, and look like haws but are too large, glossy and red. Any ideas?
I’m also wondering about the hop-like fruit of the broad leaved tree, centre. Something is telling me white birch, but I’m not sure.
Looks like there will be a good crop of helicopter seeds from the sycamores this year, too.
Any help welcome, thanks!
August 16th – Feeling better, I pottered off to Aldridge to do some shopping on Sunday afternoon. On the canal near Northwood Bridge, an unusual sight; a dense, thick patch of what looks like miniature buddleia, but is in fact wild mint.
It smells gorgeous, and the bees are loving it. I never knew mint had such gorgeous flowers.
Meanwhile, near Clayhanger, another reminder of Autumn: Haws ripening well. They look plum and will see many songbirds though winter, with luck.
August 6th – Another fruit of the season, but this time doing well, are honeysuckle berries. Sticky, poisonous and sugary they would upset human digestion but not that of the local birds, who will strip the shrubs on the south side of the Black Cock Bridge clear of berries as soon as they’re ripe.
Their sticky coating leads to them acquiring a patina of dust and road film, and I often wonder what effect that has on the wildlife that dines upon it.
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