Tag: Telford

#365daysofbiking Cherry Cherry

April 24th – I’m not working too much this week, but had to go to Telford for a meeting. On my way to Hortonwood but also having need to visit Stafford Park, I passed this stunning line of ornamental cherry trees in Blossom along the motorway.

Industrial estates like this never get much attention – but those trees are relatively undisturbed and the margins, edgelands and verges of places like this are relatively undisturbed havens for everything from pollinators to fungi.

Bravo to the people that planted these trees. A gorgeous sight in an unexpected place.

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#365daysofbiking Signs of spring

April 5th – You know it’s spring when petals dapple the roadsides and fading daffodils, stick to your tires, shoes and bike and you don’t mind one little bit.

All we need now is some sun and warm weather.

Some things about spring really put a spring in the step.

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#365daysofbiking Puddled

April 5th – Telford and Wrekin Council, Network Rail and whoever else spent 10 million pounds on a new footbridge and all they got was this lousy structure that forms huge puddles.

This is brand new. It’s badly designed, badly executed and not nearly fit for purpose.

I’m not a negative person but this is bloody awful.

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#365daysofbiking Another early arrival

March 28th – Also early this year along with most other stuff are the pieris flowers and bright read leaf tips.

This gorgeous ornamental shrub – sometimes called fetterbush – is grown a lot in gardens and in beds on industrial estates and parks for no other reason than well, it’s stunning.

This example was spotted in an otherwise anonymous scrub beside the cycleway near the Euston Way pub in Telford.

This is pretty much a fortnight earlier than it was last year, when I spotted the same shrub in Wednesbury.

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#365daysofbiking Going green

March 26th – Telford, early morning on a chilly but beautiful day.

The cycleway to the Priorslee Bridge from the station is really greening up now with this season’s new leaf growth.

In no time at all, this will be a green tunnel again, like it is every year – a real joy to the heart to ride along, alive with birds, squirrels and wildflowers.

Real beauty exists in even the most improbably urban situations.

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#365daysofbiking A host:

March 19th – I notice this year, due to the early then slightly stalled spring, that the daffodils have been really slow-burning: The came out early, then paused for a while and are now coming out fully.

This is the time of year when verges in towns and industrial estates like here in Telford are absolutely stunning for a few all too short weeks.

These yellow wonders are gorgeous and the perfect antidote to a dark winter.

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#365daysofbiking Crown of thorns

February 28th – Also out early and brightening a very grey day in Telford – the blackthorn.

Often mistaken for hawthorn, this harbinger of spring looks almost like a heavy frost or snow, but is actually tiny white blossoms, and they line the motorway embankment as seen from the Priorslee footbridge.

A lovely sight on a grey morning.

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#365daysofbiking Hello blossom

February 25th – On the cycleway at Telford, the blossom I spotted last week was now fully out, and absolutely gorgeous.

Remember, it’s still just February. This is astounding.

I’m told its cherry plum. It’s absolutely stunning.

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#365daysofbiking A sign of failure

 

February 25th – Telford station, Monday morning.

I notice we now have an ‘Official Procedure’ for when the lift on the new pedestrian bridge breaks down.

‘Complimentary’ taxis will run the stranded passengers from one side of the station to the other.

If you spend nine million pounds on a new bridge to fix disability access issues, then omit a ramp and replace it with an unreliable lift meaning punters can become stranded if it breaks – you have failed as a designer and actually made the problem you set out to solve worse.

This is an idiotic disgrace. Those that allowed this to happen should be ashamed.

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#365daysofbiking An early delight

February 14th – Unexpectedly encountered on a Telford cycleway, this hedgerow blossom. It’s lovely, crazy white, and almost insubstantially thin, like apple blossom.

I have no idea what it is. the tree is certainly flowering before its leaves have grown.

Don’t think I’ve ever seen this before, but the tree isn’t alone in its flowery beauty; so it’s not just an aberration.

Speckled with water droplets from the quite thick mist, this was a beautiful and unexpected delight.

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