April 4th – A quick run across Kings Hill Park to B&Q reminded me that although the day was grey and damp, spring was getting on with the job anyway.
A hint of sunshine and this place will be an absolute riot of colour.
Gorgeous as it is, but some warm sun and happiness would really make this fabulous… I hope the weather gods are listening!
April 3rd – A better day. I set off to work in Darlaston on a pleasant, warm and sunny morning, and then rode over to Tipton at lunchtime.
I was reminded why I love this place, and what the Black Country has my heart; The view of Church Hill, Wednesbury and the twin sisters from Ocker Hill was bustling, frenetic, and yet home to me. Then at Tipton, the canalside park devoted to William Perry, the Tipton Slasher and prize fighter of folklore was gorgeous and peaceful.
You can’t beat the Black Country.
April 1st – A ride out to Hints and Hopwas for cake on a warm, but generally overcast but thankfully dry afternoon, that was much better than expected. Spring inches on in the reluctant winter gloom, with primroses showing well in Hopes Cemetery where the daffodils were also gorgeous, and a swan couple nesting near the social club up in the village.
The Tame at Hopwas was flowing well, and spreading into the flood margins. People downstream at Elford will be worried. Let’s hope the rain holds off.
An unexpectedly good ride.
March 31st -Spotted on Clayhanger Common, a touch of optimism in the gloom: one of my guerrilla seeded patches of cowslips is just coming into flower.
My favourite flowers that I spread the seeds for ten years ago now have returned, and in the middle of a wet Saturday when it seemed the sun will never shine, they appeared to cheer me up.
Spring, right there.
March 28th – Daffodils. We all love them. I don’t think it’s possible to dislike these jolly, bright spring staples; yellow, white and orange, growing in gardens, verges, hedgerows, woodland and wasteland.
I adore them because they symbolise a new year beginning of light, long days, good rides and beautiful nature.
They are stunning in the huge displays they form, but while those are undoubtedly wonderful, I’d like to hear it for the solitary soldiers of spring – the loners, the brave, singular blooms you see dotted about.
Often on verges or poor ground, they may be the tentative start of a new patch in coming years, destined to multiply and impress from a single bulb that got there – who knows how?
They may be the last remnant of a patch decimated by disease (as large daffodil colonies often are) or disturbed by man.
They may not be perfect. They may be tatty, small or distorted. They may be eking out the last scrap of nutrition from a poor clump of soil, or harassed by traffic, animals or the wind, but they’ve done it, the lonely, single flowers. They put on a show for us.
Let’s hear it for the tenacious, bold one-offs!
March 28th – I’d been in Birmingham seeing a client and returned from Shenstone in a gap in the rain, down wet lanes, glistening and dripping in the odd light of a clearing sky.
The wind was against me and I was cold, but there was something captivating about the quiet and the sound of my tyres on the wet tarmac.
Winter seems endless this year. I just want to feel the sun on my face and the warmth to ride without a jacket a little.
Not too much to ask, is it?
March 27th – And in Darlaston, near the Black Country Route, the hawthorn is coming into leaf, splattering formerly dull, barren hedgerows with bursts of vivid emerald green.
Spring really is trying her very hardest to please us.
March 27th – A wet, cold unpleasant commute in both directions made for a horrible day, but seeing wild primroses in bloom defying the gloom on a roadside verge in Wednesbury really cheered me up.
Joy and the relief it provides can come from unexpected places.
March 26th – My goodness I’m having trouble keeping up with this this week, apologies – have no fear, normal service will be resumed forthwith!
Spring is coming to the hedgerows, edgelands and waysides, almost in spite of the lousy weather generally. Although we’re having some good days, mostly the weather is still grey and cold, and Winter is beginning to feel like the unwanted, hated guest that will never leave.
Nature is doing it’s very best to push winter away – the daffodils are well on the way now, with the large beds on roadsides starting to come out, and to my surprise, ornamental prime blossom on a trading estate in Telford.
There’s brightness, as there always is. But you have to look for it. Hard.
March 25th – A long ride, 58 miles, at a decent average of 12.5mph saw me ride out via the backlanes of Stonnall, Buzzards Valley and along the canal to Kingsbury, then over to Hurley, Grendon, DOrdon, Polesworth and up around Seckington, Clifton and home via Whittington. It was a gorgeous spring day, with warm sun on my back, daffodils in the hedgerows and lots of surprises – like the peacocks in the garden at Footherley and the gorilla statue I must have passed many times, but never seen, at Lee Marston, outside the large factory that’s now an industrial park.
There’s a story there I’m sure.
Whittington Church is really worth a visit at the moment – I passed as darkness was falling but as can be seen, the churchyard is a veritable riot of daffodils.
A great ride that really cheered me up.
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