June 4th – The flower display is continuing. So much stuff is appearing now it’s very hard to keep track, but canalside and meadow orchids are looking beautiful, dog roses and x-eye daisies all caught my eye on my commute.

There really is no better time to be on a bike, right out here in the outdoors during great sunny weather.

I have waited so long for this.

May 21st – A much nicer day with warm sun and gentle southerly breeze. I headed out through Stonnall to Footherley, then Canwell, Hints, Tamworth and on the canal to Polesworth, returning via Orton on the Hill, Austrey, Clifton and Harlaston. A nice 60 miler.

We’re into summer now; the leaves are fully out, the air is alive with bugs, bees and birds, and pollen is the dominant scent. The countryside of Staffordshire and Leicestershire was beautiful, and I was pleased to note the honeybees still nest in the roof of Hints Church, as they have done for decades.

All topped off with a lovely sunset over Ogley Hay that showed St James Church beautifully.

Changeless, and beautiful.

May 25th – As we advance to late spring and early summer, some of my favourite flowers are emerging now; birds foot trefoil ‘egg and bacon’, buttercups, elderflowers and ox-eye daisies all brighten the verges, hedgerows and edge lands of my commute.

Such lovely flowers. How I love this busy, colourful time of year.

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.