Tag: primula

#365daysofbiking Yellow favourite

April 9th – Another welcome sight indicating the ever-rolling season’s wheel are cowslips, my favourite flower in the whole world.

Cowslips were very, very unusual when I was a kid. These days they grow everywhere like weeds – and I collect the seeds when they go over and spread them anywhere I think needs a bit of yellow in the spring. And there are very few places that don’t benefit from a bit of yellow.

These hardy but delicate looking members of the primrose family are scattered over Clayhanger common – many from the result of my guerrilla seeding – and are truly divine. I love them.

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May 30th – A sign of the advancing season is the collection of seeds for a little guerrilla planting. Clayhanger Common has large patches of cowslips like these going to seed – the seeds are not ready yet. But when the heads dry and turn golden, I’ll be out shaking a few into a back for the precious black seeds within, which I’ll then spread to other areas that might benefit from a bit of cowslip love.

That’s how most of these delightful yellow flowers got onto Clayhanger Common in the first place…

April 26th – Clayhanger Common,early morning, not long after dawn.

Yellow army I surreptitiously helped establish here is massing around the grassland. Standing proud, in defiance of the land’s former history as a rubbish tip.

These flowers are a symbol of great progress, undercover as bright yellow, beautiful spring sentries.

May their invasion recur every year without resistance being encountered.

April 1st – A ride out to Hints and Hopwas for cake on a warm, but generally overcast but thankfully dry afternoon, that was much better than expected. Spring inches on in the reluctant winter gloom, with primroses showing well in Hopes Cemetery where the daffodils were also gorgeous, and a swan couple nesting near the social club up in the village. 

The Tame at Hopwas was flowing well, and spreading into the flood margins. People downstream at Elford will be worried. Let’s hope the rain holds off.

An unexpectedly good ride.

April 24th – A very cold day once more with periodic rain and sun, so typically April, really; I keep forgetting it’s so early in the year. However, as I passed Clayhanger bridge in the early evening, a patch of cowslips I’m fairly certain are there due to my previous guerrilla seeding forays, and it’s wonderful to see such beautiful delicate softness against the harshness of the traffic barrier.

Mission accomplished, I think.

April 25th – Despite the very poor weather, on Clayhanger Common, my favourite flowers are having a good year. I absolutely adore cowslips – gorgeous, delicate small yellow primroses, and there are lots growing there now, at lease two or three patches from seed I scattered here a few years ago.

Guerrilla planting is wonderful. Do some today.

January 31st – It’s been a hard weekend. Technology hasn’t been working well, and I’ve not been well with a cold. Today I was better, but felt low, and the grey, inclement weather didn’t help. I decided I needed physical activity, so I turned the computer off and went in search of some colour. 

Thankfully, I found it.

In St. Anne’s churchyard and cemetery opposite in Chasetown, spring has arrived due to the unseasonably warm weather. A single daffodil bobbed in the wind (such that my photos of it were nothing but a blur); easter primroses and calendula were bright and cheering.

Despite the terrible light and encroaching dusk, I think it can be seen that the usual carpet of purple and white crocuses in the cemetery is just coming into flower.

It’s the last day of January, and I’ve still to see a single solitary snowdrop.

The seasons in the last two years have been mad – I have no idea what’s going on. But thanks to them, my mood was lifted on a very dull last day in January.

May 11th – Cowslips are my favourite flowers. When I was a kid, these dainty little primroses were rarely seen in the area, yet thanks to wildflower planting campaigns, they’ve really got a strong foothold back in the local ecosystem. 

I love to see them, and this year they’ve lasted for weeks in the mild, dry spring; only now are they starting to go over; and even in that, they’re beautiful.

There may be bolder, bigger flowers – but you can’t match the cowslip for effort.