June 28th – A miserable wet day, but thankfully, I mostly managed to avoid the worst of the rain. Although not great for me, it’ll be good to swell the rapidly growing fruits by the wayside.
How quickly we move to the fruiting phase of summer: Rowan berries, cherries, haws and all manner of delights are now developing steadily and beginning to ripen.
A genuine delight on a dreadful morning, but where the hell is summer slipping away to?
June 23rd – Always nice to see the bindweed in flower. Another plant ignored as a weed of the fringes and wastelands, this prolific member of the Convolvulus family has beautiful flowers if you take a closer look, and very nearly pure white too.
It’s common from mid summer until autumn, supports a whole range of bugs and Lepidoptera and is one of those plants our hedgerows would be very much duller without.
June 9th – It’s the season of poppies, and there are some beautiful examples in the hedgerows, edge lands and waysides locally. I prefer these little clubs in forgotten, neglected spaces. Ragged, at various stages of maturing and going over, these to me are real poppies; dramatic, beautiful, natural, and naturally flawed.
I even love the alien-looking buds, almost prehistoric in their furry splendour.
I spotted these in the sandy embankment just by Shire Oak Quarry on my return to Brownhills.
A true hero of the hedgerow, and a worthy and apposite symbol of Remembrance.
May 25th – Not a brilliant shot but something I’ve not seen growing wild in the UK before – ornamental alliums. These are pretty much onions, similar to wild garlic etc, and several less ornate relatives are common, but I’ve never seen these large, purple globes before outside of gardens.
They’re growing well on the grass edge land at Sandhills, just by Home Farm. I was fascinated to find them.
May 25th – So many new flowers to notice every day, and in the warm sun of this perfect early morning, bright yellow coltsfoot was showing wonderfully well by the roadsides and in the hedgerows.
Such a beautiful, summery weed. Absolutely gorgeous.
May 18th – Another beautiful blossom that’s rarely looked at closely despite it’s obvious beauty is hawthorn, or May blossom.
I often incorrectly think go it as being the last blossom of the season, but it isn’t; but it’s so profuse in hedgerows and scrubs that when the flowers die off, everywhere seems quite barren without it.
Not so missed is the scent, which is strong and peculiar in that way that some flowers are, a strong organic odour that one could easily find offensive.
It’s hard to think that we’re only a few weeks now off the middle of the year, and the seasons are rapidly advancing with spring rolling into summer.
Just where has this year gone?
May 17th – The rowan is blossoming at the moment, and I always neglect this beautiful, m creamy with flower, which is a shame, as when you look at it closely, it’s fascinating in it’s beautiful, geometric perfection.
Som many delights in the hedgerows right now.
April 27th – On the way back from an errand in Shenstone, I noticed these delicate little flowers growing at the roadside between Footherley and Lower Stonnall. They’re a pink/white/mauve colour and absolutely beautiful.
Has anyone any idea what they are please?
April 13th – Spring flowers are coming thick and fast now, from dead nettles to bluebells, both Spanish and English lining the hedgerows, edge lands and verges.
Spotted at Shire Oak, some beautiful sights just growing in a mundane, roadside here that most would just pass by.
There’s beauty out there in profusion if we’re open to it.
December 9th – Near the canal at Moxley, Darlaston, I found these fascinating fungi – I’d stopped to undertake a quick mechanical adjustment, and had I not been crouched fiddling with the bike, I’d never have seen the rosy earthstars and what I assume from guides is some kind of pterula multifida living well in the under hedge leaf litter.
It just goes to show what wonders go unseen in our everyday environment.
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