Tag: ripening

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…

July 30th – The ripening is noticeable everywhere. Returning from Shenstone, the fields of wheat and oilseed rape were losing their last vestiges of green; not yet ready to harvest, but well on the way. The golden colour is welcome and is like late summer’s coat; the countryside is replete in golds, beige and dark, dark green.

Also doing well, the bramble fruits – dewberry and blackberry – are turning red, and the parsnips growing at Sandhills look in fine fettle.

Doesn’t look like it was such a bad season, after all.

July 29th – The summer is now moving into a new, later phase. From the growth, then the flowering, we’re now in the ripening and fruiting stage. All around, conkers, acorns and berries are visible in trees and hedgerows, still swelling and ripening. Here at Telford, the rowans that line the cycleways are turning orange slowly. Beautiful, but sad too, at the passage of summertime.

July 12th – Spinning out through Brownhills to Stonnall for tea, I crested Springhill on Barracks Lane on a languid, hot Friday evening. Even at 7pm there was little traffic, and few folk about. I noticed that a week or so of hot summer weather, and the colours of the season had changed. The bright, vivid, verdant greens have faded to more of a faded emerald jacket, and reds, golds and sandy yellows are creeping in to the landscape, colouring the fields shades of ripeness and fulfilment.

At Springhill, a field of gently ripening, plump wheat caught my eye, and at Cartersfield Lane, a healthy field of Barley.

A fine sight, but poignant too, as it indicates the seasons’ progression.