Tag: scent

#365daysofbiking A king’s ramson

May 10th – The weather was still excellent the following day so I decided to ride out to another of my great restoratives – the Needwood Valley and Hoar Cross.

On the way, I came through Hanch, the tiny hamlet between Longdon Green and Handsacre.

This small cluster of large houses is old, and there’s a brook flowing noisily alongside the tree-lined lane. In the margin between the two, a veritable forest of wild garlic, or ramsons.

The smell of garlic was strong and heady, and very appetising. This common wetland plant can be used as a substitute for normal garlic and is tasty in stir fries and can make for lovely jams and sauces.

I picked a little for later…

A treat for the senses.

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#365daysofbiking A taste of honey

June 6th – On the way home, I noticed the handsome, sprawling honeysuckle that grows along the railings on the southern flank of the Black Cock Bridge in Walsall Wood are in full bloom now.

Sadly, someone will be along to clip this back like a hedge soon, they always do when in flower and that always puzzles me.

It remains lovely though, and it tumbles down the embankment in the pasture below, a haven for bees, bugs and passing cyclists who adore the scent.

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#365daysofbiking By any other name

May 22nd – One of the joys of late spring and well into summer are the various varieties and colours of wild roses that populate wastelands, hedgerows, thickets and any edgeland that’s relatively sun-blessed and open.

In Telford on the way to a client meeting, the cycleway from the station to Hortonwood is lined with splashes of pink – from pale, almost white to deep, deep almost purple. And without exception, they smell divine.

Unlike cultivated roses in parks and gardens, these wayside stars get little or no care and just do their own, dishevelled thing – and to me that’s far more beautiful than some preened and nurtured hybrid.

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#365daysofbiking Held to ramson

April 28th – At Pipe Hill, between Wall and Burntwood it’s nice to see the wild garlic inn bloom again.

I really love this beautiful, edible plant – sometimes known as ramsons it tastes and can be used just like a little more subtle normal garlic, and it’s scent hangs heavy around woodland, hedgerows and damp ground far and wide.

One of the most popular posts on this journal featured the glade of wild garlic that grows by the River Arrow in Redditch with over 18,000 reactions since it was posted in 2011.

It seems I’m not the only one who likes wild garlic!

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May 31st – Also a lovely sight and a regular here, honeysuckle or woodbine, and my favourite display grows up the embankment on the northwestern flank of the Black Cock Bridge; tumbling and cascading over the railings a fences, a huge bush flowers here every year and always looks and smells divine.

For a flower so entrenched in British culture, it’s got that alien look of tropical blooms, like the Passion flower: our wildflowers aren’t normally this brassy!

It would be very hard not to love honeysuckle.

May 18th – Another beautiful blossom that’s rarely looked at closely despite it’s obvious beauty is hawthorn, or May blossom.

I often incorrectly think go it as being the last blossom of the season, but it isn’t; but it’s so profuse in hedgerows and scrubs that when the flowers die off, everywhere seems quite barren without it.

Not so missed is the scent, which is strong and peculiar in that way that some flowers are, a strong organic odour that one could easily find offensive.

It’s hard to think that we’re only a few weeks now off the middle of the year, and the seasons are rapidly advancing with spring rolling into summer.

Just where has this year gone?

May 13th – A trip into Walsall and a journey back along the canal through Aldridge didn’t reward me with the urban wildlife treats I was hoping for; I still have yet to find the owls at Ridian Bridge, the herons were all camera shy and I saw neither hide nor hair of a kingfisher.

But I did see that the hawthorn (or may) blossom was in full force now; smelling strongly in that grubby, fetid way it does, the flowers are profuse this year and at the back of the old Duckhams plant in Aldridge, red and white make a lovely side-by-side display.

Not what I’d hoped for but not a bad show, either.

April 27th – Also near Stonnall, a classic spring view: cottages at Mill Lane, Lynn surrounded by an ocean of bright yellow oilseed rape, the cheesy scent of which is filling the air in the backlanes at the moment.

It’s still way too cold, but the countryside is showing itself beautifully.