Tag: solved

May 18th – I like it when things here resolve themselves and intertwine. Way back on April 28th, I spotted an unusual, willow-like tree growing by the canal I’d not noticed before. What snagged my attention were the curious, spiky, flower-like growths, and I asked at the time what the tree might be, and were the ‘blooms’ flower or seed?

The wonderful fellow cyclist Wilymouse kindly pointed out on the original post that the tree was Grey Sallow (or Grey Willow). I learned from a link supplied that what I had seen was the female flower of this tree; the male being the familiar pussy willows.

Check out Grey Sallow here, and the images down the right hand side of the page.

Moving on, Rose Maria Burnell sent me some photos this weekend of seed fluff blowing around Chasewater. Rose assumed it was from dandelions, and I think a lot of it is… but also, it’s coming in huge amounts from grey sallow trees – the spiny flowers I photographed have seeded and are shedding wind-born material into the air, and coating everything with fluff. 

The trees seem particularly dense around Fly Creek and the dam, although they’re all over Chasewater, and the atmosphere is thick with little seeds. At the creek by the boardwalk crossing, the water is white with seed fluff. It’s really quite eerie.

So, mystery solved – thanks to Wilymouse and Rose for the input!

February 3rd – I was out unexpectedly early, so I left work while it was still light. The sharp wind was drying out the towpaths, so I hopped onto the canal at Aldridge to get a break from the traffic of the school run. 

Passing the drain sluice near the Big House at Clayhanger, I noticed something I hadn’t previously. I always thought that if the sluice were opened, it would drain the canal onto the gardens below, as early pictures show this sluice feeding an open channel.

Now the leaves are off the trees, I see there’s actually a drain shaft on the embankment through the trees a few yards away that it must flow into; one assumes this is connected to the common drain for the area.

I’d always wondered why that sluice wasn’t better locked than it is.