August 9th – Now we’re moving on to late summer, the colour du jour is moving from the purples of willow herb, thistle and buddleia to the oranges and crimsons of hips, haws and berries.
Sparkling with raindrops in the morning sun, this year’s fruitfulness was glorious.
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July 4th – One of the signs of a passing summer is the emergence of various fruits and berries, and their gentle ripening. This morning at Clayhnager, I spotted these rowan berries – beloved of wine and jam makers as well as songbirds – turning from green to a light orange.
Soon they will be a wonderful deep colour, and fall on pavements where they crackle and pop satisfyingly when walked or ridden upon.
The summer really is passing fast now.
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July 16th – In Telford, I noticed that following the dry summer, the rowan berries were ripening well, but not large; they look dry, rough and on the verge of shrivelling.
It’ll be interesting to see if other fruits are similarly affected.
It’s a long time since we had a dry summer like this.
May 18th – I said last week, somewhat stupidly, that the blossom season was passing. That was completely and utterly wrong – it’s still in full swing.
Not with the brassy, brash cherries, apple and other fruit blossoms that entertained for an all too short period a few weeks back, but with the more subtle blossoms of humbler hedgerow soldiers – in this case hawthorn and rowan.
Both smell remarkable. Both creamy white, but very different. And both rarely deemed worthy of a mention, but criminally overlooked as they’re beautiful, especially close up.
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.
July 10th – I’m really concerned about an early autumn, or maybe I’m just being paranoid because I’m missing so much sunny weather being trapped at work. These rowan berries – great for wine and jam – are ripening really well and seem very early to me.
I spotted them on the way to work at Clayhanger. It’s nice to see, and the colour – bright, vivid orange – will be excellent. But it feels like the summer is slipping away…
August 8th – I note that the wonderful Linda Mason has today witnessed the itchy feet of the swallows and consequently mentioned the ‘A’ word – Autumn.
Not yet, you don’t, matey!
I prefer to think of this period as high summer and then late summer. Autumn to me doesn’t come until the leaves turn, around late September, but I mourn summer so much I’m probably just deluding myself. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the onset of the fruiting time – here beside the M54 at Telford, on one of the town’s numerous, largely unmapped and therefore lightly used cycleways, there is a fantastic crop of rowan berries. Sometimes called mountain ash, they make a very palatable jam or wine.
Today, they made a passing cyclist smile.
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