Tag: Tree

December 28th – I’ve heard of this before, but never seen it. In the Three Spires precinct in Lichfield, as dusk fell, a barely-noticed commotion of bird fuss broke the gentle susurration of continued consumerism below. One single tree out of several, decorated in Christmas lights in a fashion that must have taken someone bloody ages, what must have been a hundred or more pied wagtails.

I’d heard they flock. These nippy, twitchy little birds live off bugs generally, and are a common sight in car parks and factory yards and other areas of open hardstanding where they can hunt unhindered, but usually in ones and twos.

I don’t know if they came for the berries, or just a party. Certainly, nothing was bothering them. A remarkable sight I was lucky indeed to see.

December 3rd – So enjoying the tailwind, I let it blow me to Walsall Wood, where I noted they have an excellent Christmas tree again this year, which I think is funded by local Tory councillors.

I’m by no means a Conservative, but respect to them for this act of generosity.

When I see the tree at Walsall Wood, I know Christmas is just around the corner.  It’s one of the milestones of the season for me. A lovely thing indeed.

October 28th – One thing that does fascinate me on the cycle path in Telford is the way the trees and scrub have grown awkwardly through the fences. There are lots of instances like this – where the sapling crossed through the mesh, and the tree is so large now it’s consuming the fece by growing around and through it. 

I’d have thought the constriction would have killed the tree, but it seem,s to have done OK considering, proving just how adaptable nature really is.

September 4th – Apologies for the poor phone photos, I forgot the camera…

I’m still musing on the oaks, and their various blights and parasites. I asserted a few weeks ago that the oak seemed to suffer disproportionally with these afflictions, but I was forgetting the various leaf-miners, bugs and aphids that affect other species.

This sycamore in Pleck, Walsall for instance is suffering form various things, including leaf miners. I have no idea why, but only this tree out of several neighbours is affected.

I really ought to read up on this stuff.

June 29th – Spotted on the cycleway near Telford station, this oddly tortured oak tree. Generally with a healthy appearance, look closely and the tree is covered in insect galls, whereas the acorns that it has grown are oddly mutated and tiny. The leaves also seem subject to some kind of leaf miner attack.

I feel sorry for the oaks – they seem far more susceptible to such attacks and diseases than other trees. I’m not arborialist – is there a reason why the noble oak suffers so very much?

July 2nd – In Darlaston, a gentle precipitation; sweet-smelling, light, and coating all it touches. It’s pukh.

Pukh is a downy fluff produced by female poplar trees, not unlike the blossom fluff produced by sallows; I noticed today the Owen Street in Darlaston was coated with fuff. I’ve seen it before – Pitsford Street in the Jewellery Quarter used to be swept with clouds of the stuff in a good year, but rarely as uniform and snow-like as this.

It’ll be interesting to see if the rains washed it away.

June 28th – Later in the day, I had to run into Aldridge on an errand. The flowers and trees are coming along well as the season ticks away; at Clayhanger, a pear tree I’d not noticed before looks set to deliver a healthy crop, but nowhere near as prodigious as the blackberries in Walsall Wood if the bees get to it and pollinate that wonderful showing of flowers. 

Again, at Clayhanger, a mystery yellow flower I really should know, but don’t; it looks almost prehistoric. Any help gratefully accepted…

April 26th – Things that happen while you’re not looking. In the last week, my favourite tree on the edge of Home Farm, Sandhills has burst into life. I love that horse chestnut, and I judge the seasons by it. It’s a handsome tree that can be seen from the canal at Catshill, and I watch it’s progress carefully.

Reassuring to see it green for another year, in such lovely spring sunshine.

February 24th – I’ve featured this remarkable tree in Victoria Park a couple of times, and it’s still growing, still consuming the railing that stands in its way. Having now totally encased the lower rail, one can almost hear it grunting as the upper rail is distorted by gentle, insistent and constant hydraulic pressure.

Despite the things clearly impeding it, the tree seems well enough. The way it has formed around its barriers reminds me very much of pyroclastic flow. It’s like slow, cold organic lava.

February 18th – A sweet and sad little mystery in Kings Hill Park, Darlaston, I noticed whilst taking a shortcut back from Wednesbury. A young sapling, not long planted in the corner of the park. Surrounded by daffodils getting ready to bloom, a unattributed heart-shaped wreath, and a single red rose. 

A valentines verse, and the date 14th February 1991. 

I have no idea. But it caught me unawares on a sunny, springlike morning. Sad, and yet so sweet.