Tag: sweet pea

#365daysofbiking How sweet thou art

June 28th – Riding out in the morning for a long ride with an old friend, we passed through Anglesey Wharf where coal from the Chasetown, Norton and Burntwood mines used to be loaded on narrowboats for transport south.

The wharf long ago fell silent, although the remains of the coal chutes and conveyors remain witness to a dark industrial past – but today, the spot is peaceful and teaming with wildlife.

Growing around a coal loading chute that used to be polished to a shine by the black gold are now the most delicate, beautifully scented wild sweetpeas, unthinkable in the wharf’s heyday.

It’s lovely to see and a great memorial to a lost industry, and a nod to a much cleaner future.

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July 8th – Always pleased to see the wild sweet peas growing around the old coal loading chutes at Anglesey Wharf near Chasewater. They are a symbol of change for the better.

As recent as 50 years ago, this was a busy, filthy and polluting coal loading interchange between road, rail and water. Coal was loaded into a continual stream of narrowboats and the sea was treeless and devoid of life.

The coal here stopped in the 1960s, and nature reclaimed – but the coal chutes stayed, a monument to an industrial past.

Now, surrounded by greenery and wildlife, they are an anachronism, but the sweet peas bloom and speak of peaceful, cleaner, better times. A lovely sight.

August 27th – The rain held off while I visited the Festival of Water at Pelsall, photos of which are on my main blog here, but I caught the warm rain on the way home, and didn’t really mind.

I explored the North Common which I hadn’t done for years, and for an ex-industrial wasteland, it’s a beautiful place with great biodiversity. Rabbits, mustelids and birds are flourishing here, wild sweetpea still in flower, while willow herb and butter and eggs added additional colour. A huge crop of crab apples hangs from branches, although due to the nature of the ground, I wouldn’t prepare anything edible from them.

A rare treat and well worth exploring, even on a wet day.

June 23rd – It was so lovely, I headed back along the canal too on my way home, riding along it to Coalpool and then onto the cycleway to Pelsall. Along the way the waterways sparkled, the skies were blue and a family of swans I’d not seen before, plus five healthy cygnets, promenaded past.

I was particularly taken with the thicket of wild sweetness on the cycleway at Harden.

Summer was made for splendid commutes like this.

July 14th – South Wigston station, where sadly some Philistine has been out with a brush-cutter and mown the interesting flowers back from the walkway.

However, the sweet peas growing in the centre of my favourite patch of wilding are keeping the bees busy. 

There’s always something to cheer, here…

June 16th – I ad to go to Walsall to pick something up from the central sorting office. The weather was atrocious – windy and rather wet. I bit the bullet at lunchtime and pulled on shorts – wet legs dry quicker than wet trousers – and actually found it to be warm and oddly pleasant. I cycled along the canal, and noticed the flowers were in fine form, if a little battered. Orchids and waterlillies graced the Wyrley and Essington, whilst in the Goscote Valley upon my return, dog roses and sweet peas grew in scented abundance. Not a bad ride, all in all.