Tag: lupin

June 30th – With the passage of the early summer, we move from the flowering to the fruiting. Most fruits and seeds will be weeks in development, and not become of anything until late summer and autumn, but many flowers and trees seed early. The lupins by the canal at Clayhanger have long passed their best, but the seed pods they’ve formed, resplendent with downy fur, are a treat in themselves.

The dandelions, of course, such masters of natural engineering, seed all summer through. Such common flowers, rarely studied, but so gorgeous in their perfection.

May 30th – Under the rumble and roar of Spaghetti Junction, beside a quiet, limpid canal, on an aqueduct above the River Tame, a little oasis of wildflowers in a built, otherwise hostile urban environment of steel, concrete and brick.

Lupins, poppies, ox-eye daisies, red campion.

That’s my Birmingham, right there.

September 12th – The weather has taken an autumnal turn of late, although this morning it felt unseasonably warm. I took loads of pictures this morning of fungi, then discovered afterwards I’d had the camera set badly and they were all fuzzy and out of focus. On the way home, though, I noted the last flowers of the season still holding up well, and the surprise lupins at Clayhanger were a shock. The dog roses near Pier Street bridge have both wonderfully scented pink flowers and beautifully orange hips. There are still traces of summer in the wet hedgerows and scrubs.

This is an odd season, to be sure.