Tag: spring

April 26th – Cycling isn’t great for me at the moment. I had a bit of a domestic accident and have sustained bruised ribs, which is making cycling a bit uncomfortable – but I’m plodding on, just slower and more gingerly than usual. 

Fortunately, I didn’t have far to go; just an errand to a few places in Brownhills. The weather was very, very changeable, and I just caught Brownhills as it was wearing it’s spring sunshine jacket. The canal side looked great, and the daffy on the verge at Silver Street were a joy. Even the canada geese looked fat and happy.

April 24th – Ten years ago I bought a shedload of wild cowslip seeds from a National Trust shop – Sudbury Hall, I think. I bought about 10 packs. I set out on a guerrilla seeding mission. They took surprisingly well.

Many (but not all) of the patches of cowslips on Brownhills and Clayhanger Common were started by me. I love cowslips, my favourite flowers. This patch are growing – and thriving – on the banks of Clayhanger Bridge. The clump seems to double in size every year.

Hello, old friends.

Do something beautiful today. It’s an investment.

April 23rd – I returned against the wind from Shenstone, just to ride through the sunlit backlanes. I hadn’t eaten all day and it was a bit of a battle, to be honest, but worth it, all the same. Everything is awake now, and the greening is well underway. At Shenstone, the ruined church tower will soon be hidden by leaves for another season, and the brook at Footherley will soon be an emerald arcadia once more. Some things are changeless, though, like the cottages and converted barns at Lower Stonnall. They look good whatever the season.

April 22nd – i’d been working from home on an important project, and not been able to get out all day. I finally escaped as the sun was setting for a short ride. I noticed when not far from home that my front wheel had a very loose spoke, so had to cut my ride short, but I got a decent ride in around Brownhills and along the canal back towards Newtown. The evening was characterised by a magenta/orange light that suffused everything. Soon my favourite tree at Home Farm will be back in leaf, and the view to Hammerwich will look a good bit greener, too.

Still, it was past eight and still warm, and just still light. Hard to imagine that three weeks before this was all under a covering of snow.

April 17th – I returned home late enough to catch the sunset – it was great tonight, although the winds were somewhat tempestuous. Thankfully, they were mostly behind me, and the warmth of them is still a pleasant surprise to the system. On cue, roadsides are a riot of daffodils, and everything seems busy with springtime.

It’s been worth the wait.

April 14th – I was in the house all morning, listening to the rain and wind, dreading the afternoon ride I was planning on taking. Slipping out mid afternoon, what I actually found was way different to that which I expected. Yes, it was raining with a gusty wind. But the warmth was welcome and lovely. The landscape was grey and the sky dull, but as I zipped up to the new pool at Clayhanger, there were signs all around of spring kicking off; birds buzzed about with nest building materials in their beaks, swans sat on nests at Clayhanger and Catshill. I saw the first Heron on the new pool I’d ever seen there. Green shoots of lupin glistened along the canal banks. At Chasewater, the reservoir was still in overflow and the marsh formed by the overspill seems to be growing marsh grasses. Tits, wagtails and pipits flitted about. There were distinct splashes of emerald green on the commons and heaths.

I think that’s it, finally. The end of the 7 month winter is at hand.

April 9th – When I left for work this morning, there was no frost, although the now familiar hatchet-edged wind chilled my bones as it has for a couple of weeks. However, on my return this evening, something had changed. It felt warm. I took off my gloves. It was grey, and the air felt moist, but as I winched myself up Shire Oak Hill, a pale ochre sun etched it’s way through the clouds. 

Little by little, there’s a change under way. Las weekend, I changed back to normal tyres. Let’s hope that’s the last outing of the ice spikes until next winter…

April 8th – Sping, come she will. After yesterday’s shock at finding myself snowbound not once, but twice, I noted the warm afternoon and spring flowers. I’m interested in the daffodils at the moment – they seem small to almost narcissus proportions this year; is this a symptom of the poor spring? Blooms that are normally large and plentiful at Sandhills are small and diminutive this year.

The faux village green at Walsall Wood – a grass verge councillors tried to convert to avert the expansion of the adjacent pub – does look lovely with a riot of crocuses. 

It’s not all growth, though; the polythene lined field at Home Farm still isn’t giving up it’s secret, and the bowling green at Oak Park is being named as a possible Olympic training facility.

A mad season, indeed.

April 5th – While I was battling through the week, so was nature, but in a grander, more impressive way. Come Friday evening, the snow remaining from the heavy falls of two weeks previously was lying only where the heaviest drifts had been. On the hill to the south of Mill Lane, the ridge-step hedgerow had clearly been a snow trap, and was dissipating itself in a beautiful way.

Coming through underneath, the keen, bright emerald green promise of a new crop. Winter melts as spring appears.