Tuesday March 23rd 2021 – Up on the Hortonwood cycleway in Telford, the signs of a new growth year are everywhere coming thick and fast now, and one of my favourites is just emerging: The hornbeam leaves.
Gorgeously green, ridged in a beautiful way with delicate serrated edges, few new leaves are so beautiful.
It’s a lovely thing to find and a great way to kick off the season proper.
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Friday March 19th 2021 – Crossing Chasewater on a dull Friday with raindrops on the wind threatening a soaking that thankfully, never materialised, I stopped on the motorway bridge and looked down to the lake.
It was good to note the emergence of the leaves on the trees in the copses and hedgerows flanking Pool Lane. It didn’t feel like spring, but it was certainly coming.
Busily, quietly, the time of renewal is getting underway – it’s all going on.
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Friday March 12th 2021 – In my desperate search for signs of spring, a major achievement: The hawthorn leaves are coming out.
This may not seem like much, but it means a familiar, bright green sheen will soon be upon the hedgerows, and the gloom of the bare branches will be pushed back into the background. It means it’s time for blossom to start – Blackthorn initially – and for catkins and sticky buds.
But most of all it means, seemingly against the odds and in this hardest, bleakest of winters, nature has restarted as usual, and there will be a spring.
I carried on to work, a good deal more bouyant than when I set out.
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Sunday January 31st 2021 – Some trees have a property, and it’s mostly, but not exclusively oak trees – that they do not drop their leaves when they die off in autumn.
Instead, the tree keeps the dead leaf attached, shedding it the following spring.
The behaviour is called ‘Marcescence’ and scientists don’t really know why it occurs. It may be to protect leaf buds from browsing animals like deer, or to faster recover nutrients from the dead leaves by absorbing them back into the tree directly, rather than through the soil.
Whatever the reason, it’s very curious.
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Tuesday, October 27th 2020 – Another cycleway, beautiful in the autumn night, but very treacherous as I found out, very nearly taking a spill on a corner.
This is the shortcut between the A51 near Beacon Park and Leomansley, a great way of cutting off the Friary island that pops you out further up the Walsall Road, giving a great route through the park when coming back from Lichfield.
The leaf mulch here was very wet and slippery, and despite taking care, my summer tyres still failed to grip as I skirted the anti-vehicle barrier.
Thankfully I held it and no harm done, but a timely reminder that there’s danger in the darkness.
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Monday, October 19th 2020 – The autumn is now in full swing, and the leaves are dropping at a rate.
Combined with the rains, it can make cycling hazardous as the leaf litter turns into a slippery goop that steals wheels and makes for interesting braking.
No such concerns on the Black Bath beside Holland Park, however, where the lights, sky and seasonal detritus gently combine for some great dusk colour.
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May 1st – A ride down into Stonnall and the lanes. It had been a rollercoaster of a week emotionally, but at least we seem to be getting the virus under control. Things don’t seem as terribly threatening as they did.
Winching my way up Castlehill out of the village onto the Chester Road, the lanes here – severed by the straightening of the Chester Road many decades ago – are leafy and peaceful, and diverge oddly.
But in the quiet of a lockdown spring evening, with birds singing and soft sunlight coming through the leaves, this was close to heaven, and like my body, my mind was climbing, slowly.
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March 23rd – A wet morning, and with the Prime Minister and clown in chief due to address the nation in the evening. Life was not feeling positive.
The morning was wet, and dripping. Rain stalked my journey to work and seeped into my clothing.
However, there were fresh leaves shooting everywhere, and early, very early cherry blossom, so it wasn’t all bad.
Some days getting to work and home in one piece and in good shape is enough.
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December 17th – In Telford – it was a frosty morning after a rainy evening and there was no shortage of ice on the new footbridge. With every turn in the weather, this ludicrous civil engineering fudge looks more and more shambolic.
In many places the standing water from the night before had frozen on the bridge deck and steps – either due to lack of gritting or the grit washing away before having chance to act.
Someone really should be answering public safety questions about this farce, but I doubt they ever will.
Still, the frost on the local byways was pretty. But by heck, it seemed cold.
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November 10th – The morning had been sunny and the afternoon grey but clear – a better day for sure than the washout of the previous one. But everything was sodden, and cycling was still…. Challenging.
Wet leaves, mud, huge puddles made the going tough but it was nice to be out.
The rain had washed most of the leaves off the trees at The Parade, meaning the really beautiful period had been transitory, like so many times of beauty this year. Such is life.
My companion went for a low angle and tilted the camera noting that the trees all had a windswept tilt, too -, and although not mine, this shot encapsulates the feeling so well, it would be a crime not to use it.
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