July 12th – I was pleased to note that one little purple flower has returned this year to the verge outside the place where I work – Self Heal. It grows low in grass and often misses the mowers. It has a very unusual flower head configuration featuring absolutely tiny but gorgeous violet blooms.
The plant, given it’s name as you might expect, is known for it’s medicinal properties, and brings a splash of colour to lawns and verges throughout middle to late summer.
July 11th – I haven’t seen much of Old Sam, the King of kings Hill lately. He had taken to sleeping on the grass in in the gardens around the old folks flats where he lives, but the gardeners came one day with their mowers and blowers and I only saw him a couple of times after that.
I needn’t have worried. He’s found a shadier spot, just out of my normal sight for the really hot days.
I notice someone had given him a bowl of water, and he was concentrating on washing, and despite my calls and invitations for strokes he studiously ignored me and got on with the important business of fur maintenance.
I adore this crotchety old lad.
July 11th – A beautiful summer’s day and the grass of Victoria Park – up until the 1930s a railway cutting – is looking scorched and brown; but no matter. This little gem of a green space right in the heart of industrial Darlaston still looks superb.
July 10th – This one has puzzled me. An unknown family of swans has appeared in Pleck, Walsall on the canal near the Rollingmill Industrial Estate.
Mum, Dad and six cygnets (a smaller, slightly runty looking one was hiding behind the weed on the right) were sunning themselves and preening at the back of a factory, while a man worked noisily through the door in the workshop behind.
I don’t know this year of any local family with six surviving chicks, and the adults don’t seem to be ringed.
They look in rude health though, and weren’t at all skittish.
Wonder if they’re now resident or just passing through? Where are they from, any ideas people?
July 10th – Popping from work into Walsall at lunchtime, it seemed the wasteland a the bottom of Bentley Mill Way had been the scene of a small scrub fire.
I first saw the lone fireman, tending the petrol powered pump extracting water from the canal, then saw the last of the smoke from the lads doing an excellent job, as ever.
These fires won’t harm the scrub much, it’ll soon grow back, but the commons, heaths and patches of wasteland right now are like tinder, and there will be many more such fires across the area if the fine weather continues.
And all the time, the good folk of the West Midlands, and indeed national Fire Service will be on hand to do their utmost to protect lives and property.
Thank you.
July 6th – No apparent issues with the thistles this year, however. In fact it seems a good year for them – prickly and purple, they are flowering well and in larger number than I’ve seen for a good few years – so as I suspect, water probably isn’t an issue for them like the berries, hips and haws of the hedgerows above.
The colours – from pale lavender to deep, dark purple – are always a joy. Thisles are very underrated indeed in my opinion.
July 6th – Well, all week now I’ve been talking about the onset of the fruiting season, and here it is: The first blackberries are beginning to ripen near Clayhanger.
Not sure how good they’ll be though with the chronic lack of rainfall this summer: no chance to swell those lovely purple-black berries.
It’ll be interesting to see if the end crop is as early as it feels, and if the fruit are any good…
July 5th – Passing the locks in Walsall, I noticed yet another heron; they are absolutely profuse this year and I see 6-8 on every journey to and from work. Whilst their diet is predominately fish, they will take young waterfowl chicks, and Mrs. Mallard was hurrying her fresh brood away, while the crow, for unknown reasons, squawked abuse at the grey fisher.
I love herons but being one of these extraordinary, comical birds today wasn’t a great gig, clearly.
July 3rd – I noticed this tree on the way to work and I have idea what it is. Can anyone help? Curious looking bloom, I thought. In fact, Im not sure if it’s a bloom, or a fruit head.
I have no idea.
Help grateful received.
June 27th – Since we’re in high, hot summer we’re now in a phase of darker flowers – purples, reds, dark blues. And that means the thistles are coming out.
Spotted flowering on industrial wasteland in Pleck, this gorgeous thistle was alive with tiny back bugs.
I immediately felt sorry for the plant. But who knows? They may have been doing it good…
Fascinating, all the same.
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