Tag: bold

March 28th – Daffodils. We all love them. I don’t think it’s possible to dislike these jolly, bright spring staples; yellow, white and orange, growing in gardens, verges, hedgerows, woodland and wasteland.

I adore them because they symbolise a new year beginning of light, long days, good rides and beautiful nature.

They are stunning in the huge displays they form, but while those are undoubtedly wonderful, I’d like to hear it for the solitary soldiers of spring – the loners, the brave, singular blooms you see dotted about.

Often on verges or poor ground, they may be the tentative start of a new patch in coming years, destined to multiply and impress from a single bulb that got there – who knows how?

They may be the last remnant of a patch decimated by disease (as large daffodil colonies often are) or disturbed by man.

They may not be perfect. They may be tatty, small or distorted. They may be eking out the last scrap of nutrition from a poor clump of soil, or harassed by traffic, animals or the wind, but they’ve done it, the lonely, single flowers. They put on a show for us.

Let’s hear it for the tenacious, bold one-offs!

August 11th – I had to pop to Shenstone on an errand on my way home from work, and the chance to ride these sleepy, familiar lanes, even on a dull day is wonderful. 

I crossed Church Hill through the churchyard of St Johns, purely as I hadn’t been up there in a while. I have to say, the grounds maintenance at the rear in the old graveyard is currently not a patch on what it was, but I guess the wildlife appreciates the lack of disturbance.

The church remains what it has always been to me: A remarkable building in a beautiful spot, although not to my taste: A competent, muscular design in Victorian dark gothic that screams foreboding at me, not praise.

However, always good to see this landmark of my life. Love or hate it, it’s a remarkable thing.