February 16th – Not neglected at all, and a wonderful place to be right now is Kings Hill Park in Darlaston. Regular readers will know this place needs no introduction or explanation, and at the moment it’s alive with spring flowers – Daffodils both large and miniature, snowdrops, crocuses and primroses. And still, it’s only the middle of February.
If you have time, get up here soon. It’s a joy to the heart, and just the restorative I needed after the awful sight of Corporation Street Cemetery.
January 10th – A terrible, snatched photo, but a signifier of this bizarre season – an early arrival spotted on a roadside verge in Chase Terrace.
This winter is seriously strange.
January 9th – Out for a spin around Stonnall before the rains came again, I spotted another sign of the odd season. The sign announcing one’s entry to Stonnall out by the church has a planter at its base; in the planter, a variety of flowers are in bloom, including heather, ornamental daisies and primroses. I have no idea what the plant is with the orange, marble-sized fruits, but it looks familiar and is very attractive.
A nice dash of colour on a grey day – my compliments to the folk who tend these lovely village features.
January 1st – New Years Day 2016, and the weather is so unseasonably temperate that calendula are flowering on the verge in Barracks Lane, just at the Warrenhouse, near Brownhills. And they aren’t the only thing.
I welcome the colour and cheerfulness, but this can’t be right, can it?
December 11th – As the grey, damp days and dark nights wind on, it’s hard finding colour in the world, and it can be hard to keep this thing positive – but it’s not hard at all when you spot things as lovely as these polyanthus, recently planted at Telford station, which seem to be blooming just in time for Christmas.
I was making a flying visit at lunchtime, and the journey was long and fraught – but these cheered me on no end.
November 12th – On an otherwise bright morning on an unseasonably warm November day, in a damp corner of Kings Hill Park ion Darlaston, some late winter flowers bloom largely unnoticed in a border nearly swamped by leaf litter.
They were trying desperately hard to be noticed, so I obliged them.
October 4th – A considerably different day, the sun was again shining and warm on my back. I had other stuff to do, so I spun up to Chasewater and back along route 5 over Engine Lane.
The canals and byways really have the autumn jacket on now, although there are still pockets of flowers around – and I’d be interested to know what the pink ones are.
August 14th – This one’s for Kate Cardigan, who was admiring the flowers on this very boat, moored at Brownhills, as some point on the day I took these pictures.
I’ve not seen this unusual, cream-coloured craft before, but I love the flowers and tomatoes growing on it.
Just the thing when riding through a dull, wet Brownhills on a miserable Friday.
July 31st – An hour or so later, in Telford, I spotted the flowerbed at the railway station was rather wonderful in the sunlight. The day was warming, and the bright colours of the bedding plants were lovely. I don’t know who tends this planter, but whatever time of year it always looks incredible.
Thanks to whoever maintains it.
July 20th – A very dull day, and I was caught in the rain twice. Still, the rain was warm and the atmosphere hot and humid so it was quite pleasant when I was;t riding into it.
I notice in the last few weeks the buddleia has burst into flower. Known as the butterfly busy, the copious purple blooms are a boon for lepidoptera and other bugs, but due to the remarkable tenacity of the shrub, I’ll always view it as a the harbinger of urban decay. Wherever there is dereliction, neglect or abandonment, Buddleia takes a hold, be it disused factories, rail lines or in issues in masonry. As it grows, it will pull brickwork apart and swamp all beneath it.
A remarkable plant.
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