#365daysofbiking Solace in an unusual time

April 12th – And of course, the flowers continued to captivate me. Magnolia, various blossom, primroses, forget me nots, pieris (is that a flower? Don’t know) and green alkanet all entertained and gave me solace in this most unusual of rides.

You can stick the coronavirus where the sun really doesn’t shine but I can handle countryside to myself like this for as long as possible, please!

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#365daysofbiking Green, not blue

April 30th – Green alkinet is a misleadingly named plant – it has pretty, tiny blue flowers and is a member of the forget-me-not family. It’s largely a garden escapee and grows like wildfire if not challenged.

At the moment, it’s spreading a subtle blue haze to match the bluebells at roadsides, hedgerows and edge lands, like here on Shire Oak Hill at Sandhills.

There are so many lovely flowers to share at the moment. A fantastic time of year.

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June 26th – Cutting across the common, there are plenty of flowers in bloom, and the bees are busy. Blues and purples seem the order of the day, with late forget-me-nots, purple comfrey vetch and others all showing well. 

Also rather lovely are the dandelions – not just those flowering, but those gone to seed, too – such lovely, natural engineering.

May 6th – Spinning home from work down the Goscote Valley cycleway, I noticed new additions to the palette of flowers this year – primroses and forget-me-nots. Not remarkable flowers in themselves, but new arrivals in this location, which can only be a good thing.

Great to see nature thriving along the old rail line like this.

April 10th – Down at the Warehouse, Where the Lichfield Road and Barracks Lane Cross, a horse’s neigh from where the Staffordshire Hoard found Hammerwich, some beautiful flowers by the horse pasture. Forget me nots, wallflowers, blackcurrant, daffodils, hyacinth and others vie for attention in a busy hedgerow.

A gorgeous sight on what was a blustery, rather cold day.

May 2nd – How can grey days be so beautiful? It was awful weather, cold, miserable, wet. But returning to Brownhills near Clayhanger on the canal, the hedgerows were emerald green, blossom was around and forget-me-nots dappled the embankments. Such a delight after so long grey. 

Sun would be most welcome, and a bit of warmth; but this ain’t so bad.

May 31st – Summer finally here at last. After a week of dreadful, rain-sodden commutes, fraught with stress and delay, this was a real tonic. The rapeseed is still spreading the fluorescent yellow love, and nature rose to the occasion perfectly, with field margins and hedgerows ablaze with colour and resonating to birdsong and beebuzz.

May 17th – Spring wends onward, despite somewhat indifferent weather. A late afternoon spin rewarded me with beautiful dead nettles and forget-me-nots. As a kid I can remember plucking the white blooms from the dead nettles and sucking the sweet, tasty nectar from the base of the blossom.

These days, I’d be careful to choose nettles from above dog leg height.

Meerash Hill at Hammerwich is a carpet of familiar, fluorescent yellow, and Mrs. Swan sits patiently with no little dignity on the nest at the Watermead in Brownhills, whilst just up the canal bank, Mr. Goose stood guard with paternal pride as his brood explored.

I love this time of year.