Tag: snowdrops

February 9th – The day was pretty grey, really, but had it’s moments. Fed up of the mud and slurry of recent haunts, I cycled down into Lichfield to pick up some shopping, and I returned via the back lanes around Wall.

The winter panorama of Hammerwich was stunning, but the wind was evil, and it blew me down Pipehill at a fearsome speed. Passing through Sandfields, I stopped to look at the Pumping Station, an architectural gem marooned in a sea of modern mundanity. I wish the preservation campaign every success.

At Wall, as the sun was beginning to set, I found my first snowdrops of the year growing in the churchyard.

Spring will come, I can feel it now. It wasn’t dark until gone 5:30pm..

February 26th – I was thankful for the favourable wind on the way home, but the grey, half-mist half-drizzle was miserable. I normally love this journey, but today, it was dismal. It did, however, have some bright moments; the buzzard spied over the field near Muckley Corner was a long, lucky shot in very poor light, and the snowdrops on the verge at Sandhills are numerous and cheering. 

Mostly, though, the A461 just ground on into the grey afternoon. Come on sunshine, where are you?

February 18th – Down at the junction of Barracks Lane and Lichfield Road, in Brownhills, not far from where the Staffordshire Hoard was found, there’s a filed of horses, which I think belong to nearby Warrenhouse Farm. At the entrance to this field, I spotted this two delightful patches of snowdrops in the hedgerow. Beautiful and delicate, yet somehow hardy, they are a marker, a signal. THeir appearance means that spring cannot be far away…