Tag: blossom

April 20th – And so, spring is on her throne at last and summer is booting up.

The speed at which this has happened this year – in no more that a week – has been startling and rather wonderful.

Every day new discoveries, and whilst yesterday, the blossom was just starting, this morning it was showing strongly.

How long I have waited for the light, the warmth and the wonderful burst of life. It was worth the wait.

April 11th – Over in Telford on a misty grey and damp morning, crossing the motorway on the cycleway bridge I noticed that the blackthorn blossom was in full swing.

One of the earlier tree blossoms of spring, it’s usually a pointer to better weather. Often mistaken for hawthorn, it turns hedgerows and copses white for a time, but before the leaves are fully out.

It shows it’s real beauty on a sunny day. Ah well, better luck next time.

April 9th – I’ve been passing this rather beautiful white shrub for a week or more now and have absolutely no idea what it is. It’s growing in a clump of cotoneaster in an industrial estate flower bed in Wednesbury. 

In the damp beauty of a misty morning it was absolutely gorgeous. Anyone know what it is?

March 29th – Again returning from Shenstone, again it was raining as as I alighted from the train. My heart was heavy and I didn’t fancy the wet ride home but something caught my eye in the shrub border to the platform.

An ornamental blackcurrant, in flower. It was dripping with rain, but that glorious pinky red was most vivid in the gloom. And for that, it made me happy.

March 26th – My goodness I’m having trouble keeping up with this this week, apologies – have no fear, normal service will be resumed forthwith!

Spring is coming to the hedgerows, edgelands and waysides, almost in spite of the lousy weather generally. Although we’re having some good days, mostly the weather is still grey and cold, and Winter is beginning to feel like the unwanted, hated guest that will never leave. 

Nature is doing it’s very best to push winter away – the daffodils are well on the way now, with the large beds on roadsides starting to come out, and to my surprise, ornamental prime blossom on a trading estate in Telford.

There’s brightness, as there always is. But you have to look for it. Hard.

June 12th – One of the stars of high summer is the humble blackberry bramble flower. Never less than ragged, these fragile, prolific blooms are very common and seldom studied – but they’re a haven for bees and bugs, and add a lovely texture to wastelands, thickets and hedgerows.

And later, hopefully a huge crop of luscious dark fruit, just right for pies and crumbles, not no mention wine!

May 23rd – I’m glad to say the sun and warm weather over the last few days has rejuvenated a blossom I thought had died this year with barely a whimper; laburnum or golden chain began flowering weeks ago, but petered out, I assume due to the climate.

Today, it was bright, lush and clear, and one can see why it was planted so much in the postwar years – a truly beautiful blossom. Sadly, the seed pods are very, very toxic and after several child poisonings by ingestion, many of these beautiful trees were cut down for public safety.

Those that remain though – especially examples like this one planted to contrast with neighbouring species at Shelfied – are very, very beautiful.

May 13th – A trip into Walsall and a journey back along the canal through Aldridge didn’t reward me with the urban wildlife treats I was hoping for; I still have yet to find the owls at Ridian Bridge, the herons were all camera shy and I saw neither hide nor hair of a kingfisher.

But I did see that the hawthorn (or may) blossom was in full force now; smelling strongly in that grubby, fetid way it does, the flowers are profuse this year and at the back of the old Duckhams plant in Aldridge, red and white make a lovely side-by-side display.

Not what I’d hoped for but not a bad show, either.