July 7th – Summer’s wheel continues to turn, despite the poor weather, and I was shocked today to note that the rowan berries on the trees by the cycleway in Pelsal were beginning to ripen.
One of the earlier berries of the summer, they add a lovely splash of orange colour to the maturing greenery of high summer.
With days now getting shorter, it really feels like the year is advancing fast now.
July 27th – I awoke to a better day. It was warm again and the sun was shining sporadically. After the dismal unpleasantness of the previous day, this was refreshing and welcome, particularly as I’d expected a wet morning commute.
The dearth of traffic (due to the Industrial Fortnight) also made for a pleasant ride.
Passing the rowans in Pleck, I noticed their berries were plump and now bright orange. This pleased me.
Sometimes, like the berries, sun and warmth is all I need.
July 15th – On the cycleways of Telford, the hedgerows, verges and scrubs are alive with life, blossom, and developing fruit. I was really surprised to note today that rowan berries all along the path were ripening well.
A bitter but sugar-laden fruit, rowan makes great jam and wine, and when ripe, will be devoured by hungry songbirds.
Bright orange, it’s one of the first berries to appear, and one of the most distinctive sights of summer. Great to see.
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…
September 9th – I got soaked again on the way to work this morning, less that 12 hours after getting similarly wet the night before. I’ve certainly not had much luck with the showers this last few days, and there’s now a permanent rainbow over my boots. The rain on the rowans and other shrubbery beside the cycleway at Telford looked nice, though.
Here’s hoping for a drier week…
August 23rd – Spinning out through the countryside, I noticed how many plants and trees are fruiting – rowan, oak and many I don’t recognise. The willow herb is seeding, too, and it’s easy to see why it has the colloquial name ‘old man’s beard’. It’s very hard to escape the fact that autumn is now on my heels. A sobering thought.
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.
August 8th – I note that the wonderful Linda Mason has today witnessed the itchy feet of the swallows and consequently mentioned the ‘A’ word – Autumn.
Not yet, you don’t, matey!
I prefer to think of this period as high summer and then late summer. Autumn to me doesn’t come until the leaves turn, around late September, but I mourn summer so much I’m probably just deluding myself. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the onset of the fruiting time – here beside the M54 at Telford, on one of the town’s numerous, largely unmapped and therefore lightly used cycleways, there is a fantastic crop of rowan berries. Sometimes called mountain ash, they make a very palatable jam or wine.
Today, they made a passing cyclist smile.
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