rose – Page 6 – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

September 3rd – Beauty is often found in unexpected places, and unexpected circumstances. Like a bad penny today, I pitched up again in South Wigston. This station – no more than a suburban halt, really – has always been a station I’d hated. No information system, little shelter, grim and fore bidding in the dark. And very, very cold in winter. Yet, this year, something strange happened. I discovered beauty here. I started to study the patch of scrub between the ramp and platform on the northbound side way back in spring, when it started to show a remarkable diversity of flowers. Untended, it seems to have been subject to some form of guerrilla planting. As the seasons have advanced, I’d spotted more stuff going on in this patch of scrub, which I feel sure I’m the only person ever to have noticed. It’s enchanting.
Today I found myself studying it again, at 8:45 on a misty, yet hazily sunny autumn morning. The fruiting has started in earnest. Haws, Hips, and catoniaster (the blackbirds go nuts for those bright orange berries) mingled with teasels, snails and cobwebs to make an autumnal tableaux that astounded and transfixed me.
Sometimes, I think I must be the only person in the world who gets excited about this stuff.

July 30th – One of the colours of a summer at it’s peak is the deep purple of rosebay willowherb, or old man’s beard. Familiar to many due to it’s floating, fluffy airborne seeds, it occupies hedgerows, thickets and waste ground where it grows in profusion in the poorest soils. Here, at Lynn Lane in Stonnall, it’s well in bloom now, and will soon be seeding. For now though, this delightful flower is alive with bees, wasps, butterflies and all manner of winged insects.

June 20th – As the summer progresses, the flowers change. I notice in the last week or so more and more wild roses seem to be in bloom. The delightful cerise blooms were growing amongst the reeds and long grass at the side of the canal near Bentley Bridge, Darlaston.

June 11th – Retuning via the canal, l noted that the condition of the towpath between Pelsall North Common and Highbridges, is as atrocious as it ever was. Concentrating carefully on riding, I nearly missed this fine display of semi-feral roses tumbling over the rear hedge of a Pelsall garden. A spectacle of true beauty.