November 2nd – Despite the gloom and cooling weather, there are still patches of colour to be found. On a dew-dampened canal towpath as dawn swelled over the Black Country, the clover still looks perfect in purple.
The dark, cold months are about finding joy where you can…
October 17th – Well, if the day before had gone unexpectedly pink, the sunset when a gorgeous purple over Brownhills.
Rolling down the hill happy after seeing the deer, I was greeted by the most gorgeous sky. Unusually, I ducked off the High Street at Anchor Bridge, and on to the canal to catch it better.
Within the space of ten minutes, it had gone.
I was very pleased to have caught this. We’re having a great sunset season this year!
July 3rd – It’s time for my annual heart-wrenching over the purple conundrum that is the butterfly bush. Buddleia is a prolific, very common shrub that will grow anywhere, in any scrap of earth or soot, and is synonymous with urban decay: look upwards in any town right now and you’ll see this tenacious battler growing and flowering from cracks in brickwork, lifting tiles on roofs, blocking gutters, prizing apart chimneys and crowding any embankment, towpath, disused rail line or wasteground.
It’s beautiful and very good not just for Lepidoptera, but all manner of bugs and is very, very pretty. But it is such a symbol of dereliction and decay.
June 28th – One of the plants that’s commonly considered a nuisance and confined to edge lands and waste ground is rose bay willowherb, or old man’s beard.I’ve always felt the scorn for this violet midsummer trooper was unfair, as it’s another beautiful weed.
Fast growing with well-recognised wind-borne seeds, this tall plant is seen in hedgerows and other land that goes untended. It has a beautiful smell and adds a lovely purple tinge to otherwise dull spaces.
I’ll get you all looking at your weeds in a new light if it kills me…
June 27th – Another beautiful weed is the thistle. There seems to be a very large variety of these spiny, prehistoric looking plants, and their strains seem endlessly complex – but whether a light mauve like these at Shire Oak Hill or a pink or deep, deep purple, they are all gorgeous and fascinating, particularly in the hostel-looking buds.
June 13th – Coming to be a common sight about now, a lovely purple flower dots the verges, hedgerows and neglected spaces. I’m fairly sure this is knapweed, and looks very thistle-like, but has no prickles.
I wonder what the evolutionary genesis of this is – something so similar to another plant, but without the protective defences? Whatever, it’s a really beautiful thing.
June 2nd – The orchids are really prolific and pretty this year, I’m very glad to say. In many shades of blue and purple these small, dense blooms are springing up all along the canals, heaths and wetlands.
These were at the canal by the new pond in Clayhanger. Look at the markings on the petals – absolutely gorgeous.
They’re not with us for long, so get and see them while you can.
May 31st – Since were in the largely purple phase of flowering now, it would be wrong to overlook this tiny gem. Prolific on grass verges, towpath margins and anywhere with decent light and room to spread, vetch is a gorgeous, long lasting lilac-violet colour and brightens many otherwise dull corners.
It really is a highlight of summer and one I look forward to enjoying seeing.
May 30th – This is always a lovely first sighting of the summer – the first orchid. Small, light purple in colour and growing in a solitary position next to the cycleway at Ryecroft this small, pretty flower reminds me that summer is here.
I’m not proficient enough to tell one orchid from another – there are so many different but similar types it can be very hard to tell – but they are all gorgeous, and like cowslips, are one of my favourite flowers.
Look out for them in wetland meadows, towpaths, marshes and the edges of ponds and streams. The more you study them, the more beautiful you will see they are.
May16th – I note the annual appearance of lupins with interest; growing near Clayhanger Bridge on the canal bank, the purple always bloom before the pink and white; and I don’t suppose they are really but they seem very early this year.
Still, it’s lovely to have them back, and to note the start of the rash of purple flowers coming soon – vetch, marsh orchids and others.
There’s something new every day right now. I love summer’s first breath.
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