Tag: bloom

April 3rd – Up near Wall, the old cricket pitch was ploughed up a few years ago now by the farmer who owned it, leaving the portakabin pavilion – which must have cost a few bob to install – marooned. 

It’s so sad to see the cricket pitch gone; many a Sunday or Saturday afternoon as a young man I’d pass here with a game in full swing and sit and watch with maybe a beer on the go.

Remarkably, the in and out field are now supporting a healthy, blooming crop of oilseed rape, which seems a wee bit early for me – but it is beautiful.

Three years ago this weekend I found a car still abandoned in deep snow not half a mile from here. How the seasons in this country vary.

March 15th – Nice to see another harbinger of spring today on the canal in Pleck – pussy willows. These curious, pollen-covered blooms are showing really well in the past couple of days, and bring some welcome colour to canal banks, verges and scrubs.

It really feels like nothing can stop spriing now – but it’s still a wee bit cold for my liking.

June 22nd – Another impressive showing this year is the honeysuckle, or woodbine on the south side of the Black Cock Bridge in Walsall Wood. A veritable carpet of pink-yellow blooms, it’s alive with bugs and bees and smells gorgeous.

I love the slightly prehistoric, otherworldly appearance of the flowers, too.

May 17th – Only a short ride today, as my stomach was bad and I was busy with other stuff.

On the canal at Newtown, a familiar scum is developing, and I always get concerned mail from readers about it, who are justifiably concerned that the canal has been polluted by some foreign substance.

Well, it has and it hasn’t: but it’s nothing to worry about. The white film is the pollen and detritus from Sallow trees (Goat Willow) which bloom at this time of year and shed white fluff to the four winds – and it gathers on the canal surface, looking like some terrible contaminant.

It’s really a natural, organic thing and nothing to worry about.

July 27th – Brownhills High Street.

Next time you hear someone dismiss this place as a dump, a ghost town or worse, think of this.

Local traders have worked hard – with the Town Centre Partnership – to create the wonderful flower displays we have. Just look at that – it’s gorgeous.

It’s a tribute to the hard work and community spirit of the traders who’ve planted and kept watering the baskets, tubs and planters.

The place may have problems, but these people had a go, and made something beautiful. 

A wonderful thing on a lovely summer evening. Thank you.

May 10th – Not a great day, blustery with rain showers, but the flowers and blossom still look good. On the local canal bands hawthorn, gorse, laburnum and cowparsley combine to leave the hedgerows a riot of yellow and white, the colours of spring and early summer.

All these are quite ordinary, overlooked blooms, but do look at the gorse and cowparsley – fantastically complex and beautiful.

April 1st – This day last year, I was cycling past 4ft drifts of snow in Bardy Lane, Upper Longdon, and the weather was wet and cold indeed. Today was very warm and mostly sunny, and at Grange Farm at High Heath, the early oilseed rape is just about to come out in a riot of scent and colour.

I love this crop; vivid yellow, smelling like Emmental cheese, it sets the countryside alight with vibrant yellow. Frequently and unfairly blamed for hay fever, the sticky pollen of this plant is way too heavy and course to be wind-borne. A member of the brassica family, it’s closely related to mustard and cabbage, and will provide a boon for bees and bugs as it blooms.

And as it does, I feel the season advancing a little further…

February 28th – Returning from work mid-afternoon, with shopping to fetch, I came through Aldridge. Just opposite the Manor House I spotted these rings of crocuses planted around young saplings, themselves strongly in blossom. The sight and intensity of the flowers was a tonic, and the blossom beautiful in its delicacy.

Spring? This’ll do.