October 16th – It’s not all grey and darkness, though – if you look carefully some flowers are still proudly hanging on on the edge lands and verges – the odd ragwort, bindweed, persistent daisies and oddly enough, plenty of purple clover.
There’s always something positive to be found if you look hard enough.
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June 3rd – Also dotting the verges of Darlaston today, white clover – well, more cream-brown really.
Usually later than it’s pink-red sousin, white clover is another gorgeous, overlooked classic I love to see.
Always worth studying the grass under your feet to see what gems lurk there in summertime.
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May 17th – More wildflowers today: Clover, ox-eye daisies and and one I can’t identify with lovely small delicate white flowers.
Again, all of these examples are on a quiet, otherwise anonymous industrial estate, populating the grass verges.
The wonder of nature.
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May 30th – So many new wild flowers every day. On a day that was wet, but whose rain I missed whilst in work, I noticed the clover along the Goscote Valley cycleway was looking beautiful in the wet grass.
If you actually study clover flowers, they are amazingly delicate and complex, yet so often overlooked.
A true staple of summer.
November 2nd – Despite the gloom and cooling weather, there are still patches of colour to be found. On a dew-dampened canal towpath as dawn swelled over the Black Country, the clover still looks perfect in purple.
The dark, cold months are about finding joy where you can…
May 17th – Nice to see, even on a rainy, grey morning, that meadow flowers are now showing strongly on the verges and edge lands of industrial estate, urban roads, tracks, towpaths and trails.
Welcome back for another season to buttercups, clover and bird’s foot trefoil, which serve to brighten even the most overlooked piece of grass.
Everywhere you look at the moment, beauty is bursting to the fore in a myriad of different flowers, leaves and blossoms.
A wonderful time of year.
May 26th – One flower I forgot yesterday that really deserves attention is clover. It’s just coming into flower at the moment, as as I proved yesterday, is a very sadly overlooked component of the verges and meadows.
At the moment, I’m mainly seeing purple ones, and their colour is lovely and bright, and the leaves are beautiful too, especially after rain.
We shouldn’t overlook even the humblest of flowers. They’re only trying to grab our attention, after all.
July 4th – Sweet rain.
It’s been a long, dry and warm spell. Today was fraught, stressed, tired, sweaty. I was struggling against the urge to just go home, the heat, tiredness, irritation. But I could smell the rain on the wind. Sweet, distant, but present. I stood on the threshold of an open fire escape at work and filled my lungs with the smell of moisture on the wind.
As I left work, it began. I enjoyed it. Not torrential, but steady. Gently saturating the plants, refreshing the greenery, and making me feel if not less tired, more alert.
A sensory delight.
I was glad the week was over. And welcomed the rain.
May 29th – Meanwhile, further on near the Pier Street Bridge, a chance to catch up with the flowers whose photos turned out badly the day before. Clover, the unsung hero of the pasture, meadow and verge is always beautiful, but very overlooked. Nutritious in fodder and attractive to bugs and butterflies, clover does it’s violet thing pretty much unnoticed.
Another very common flower that goes unremarked is the ribwort plantain – it’s brown flower heads with the white corona don’t look like flowers, but they are. Exceedingly prolific this year, they’re everywhere that grass grows. As kids, we’d pick them at the base of the stalk and play conkers with them. I think they’re fascinating, and demontrate the utter diversity of plant life in the UK.
The damp conditions may not be improving my humour any, but that slug looks in fine fettle. Much misunderstood creatures, that I think are actually rather interesting.
September 6th – The rains came today, but not too much. Skipping out weary in the afternoon, I rode the canal towpaths which were quiet, and fast. There was that lovely fresh earth, post rain smell, and the landscape looked clean and fresh. What impressed me most, though was the huge variety of flowers and plants still showing well along the towpath. This selection were all spotted between the Pier Street Bridge and Coopers Bridge, just by the Watermead.
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