#365daysofbiking Tree cheers:
December 3rd – I was pleased to note on my way home from work that Rushall Christmas Tree – bought and paid for by the community – has had the lights switched on and it looks just gorgeous.
My compliments to all who have worked to provide this tree. It is beautiful.
Merry Christmas, folks!
#365daysofbiking That time again:
November 29th – On a windy, damp Thursday evening in Walsall, I notice the Christmas Tree and decorations are now up.
Blimey, it’s December on Saturday.
That’s really creepy up on me! Oh well, soon be the shortest day…
#365daysofbiking Tree of life:
September 29th – Heading out at sunset after what was a pretty bad day, I swung up the canal through town, over Catshill Junction and over to Barracks Lane. The canal was beautiful and peaceful, and the only souls I saw were the waterfowl scudding around looking for food.
Looking over the fields to Home Farm my favourite tree – the horse chestnut on the skyline just by the farm buildings – is beautifully golden, and glowed in the evening.
All round me now, the greenery is packing up and going for autumn. There’s no ignoring it.
July 28th – There was not only a remarkable sunset, but a partial rainbow within it, so I shot out on the bike to catch it in what I thought would be the best place – from the canal overlooking Sandhilsl and Home Farm.
When I got there, I realised that I had a problem: The hedge was too high to get decent pictures. So I rode up the canal to the gap in the hedge, and crawled through. Walking the field of uncut wheat was wonderful, particularly so following the day’s showers, which made it a sensory delight.
How I adore that horse chestnut tree.
July 23rd – Saddly poor photo of something that caught me by surprise: A wayside pear tree in Clayhanger (I won’t say where) is fruiting very heavily this year, and despite the dry conditions, the fruit look like they’re going to be quite large.
Watching this one carefully, but expecting the crop to be decimated by birds (bless them) as it has been before.
July 5th – Always bittersweet to see the berries come; a sign that spring is well and truly gone and summer is peaking.
Still, the Belisha orange berries of the rowan or mountain ash are beautiful in their own right and will bring colour aplenty to hedgerows, parks, verges and thickets for weeks to come, as well as being foraged for jams and jellies.
You can’t escape the passage of summer, so best enjoy it.
July 3rd – I noticed this tree on the way to work and I have idea what it is. Can anyone help? Curious looking bloom, I thought. In fact, Im not sure if it’s a bloom, or a fruit head.
I have no idea.
Help grateful received.
June 7th – In Darlaston’s Victoria Park, at the far end where the footpath rises from the old railway bed to Darlaston Road, the tree growing by the marsh fence is still continuing it’s pyroclastic consumption of the fence and footpath.
Sadly, I don’t think the tree is long for the world, as one half is diseased, but the demonstration of persistent, gentle hydraulic pressure is startling and impressive.
Makes me smile every time I see it.
May 8th – A first for the year: pottering back from an errand in Aldridge the first marble oak wasp galls are appearing on the oaks along the canal towpaths.
That’s a sign the season is already moving on…
May 5th – A gorgeous day for riding, hindered by the need to do favours for mates and a bit of a bad tummy saw me leave for a fast, warm and beautiful sSaturday Evening ride that really did catch the best of Staffordshire and all that I had been missing with the dreary spring.
You can see a full set from this ride on my main blog by clicking here.
On my way out, I noticed that my favourite tree, the horse chestnut on Home Farm at Sandhills, visible from the canal at Catshill, is now in leaf.
I love that tree. I gauge the seasons by it. It looks beautiful and green.
Summer has begin!
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 