Tuesday March 23rd 2021 – Up on the Hortonwood cycleway in Telford, the signs of a new growth year are everywhere coming thick and fast now, and one of my favourites is just emerging: The hornbeam leaves.
Gorgeously green, ridged in a beautiful way with delicate serrated edges, few new leaves are so beautiful.
It’s a lovely thing to find and a great way to kick off the season proper.
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Sunday January 31st 2021 – Some trees have a property, and it’s mostly, but not exclusively oak trees – that they do not drop their leaves when they die off in autumn.
Instead, the tree keeps the dead leaf attached, shedding it the following spring.
The behaviour is called ‘Marcescence’ and scientists don’t really know why it occurs. It may be to protect leaf buds from browsing animals like deer, or to faster recover nutrients from the dead leaves by absorbing them back into the tree directly, rather than through the soil.
Whatever the reason, it’s very curious.
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Tuesday November 3rd 2020 – A better day with milder weather and better cycling. I crossed Kings Hill Park on an errand, and stopped to admire the autumn colour.
There comes a point in autumn where you have no choice but to roll over and accept the darkness and cold, and just get on with it – but the consolation is always the colour and what the season does to favourite places like this park.
Autumn isn’t too bad once you stop fighting it, and then it becomes stunningly beautiful.
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Friday, October 23rd 2020 – I had to nip over Penkridge Bank on Cannock Chase for business so I cut across Maquis’s Drive to catch the autumn colour – and wasn’t disappointed.
It’s always a lovely route, and being a Friday, wasn’t very busy. The Chase itself was quiet.
I was on the lookout for interesting fungi but sadly the only example I came upon of note was wooden…
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May 1st – A ride down into Stonnall and the lanes. It had been a rollercoaster of a week emotionally, but at least we seem to be getting the virus under control. Things don’t seem as terribly threatening as they did.
Winching my way up Castlehill out of the village onto the Chester Road, the lanes here – severed by the straightening of the Chester Road many decades ago – are leafy and peaceful, and diverge oddly.
But in the quiet of a lockdown spring evening, with birds singing and soft sunlight coming through the leaves, this was close to heaven, and like my body, my mind was climbing, slowly.
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April 29th – And, despite a downturn in the weather, nature still keeps me going day to day, and it’s particularly splendid right now.
On an afternoon exercise ride, I didn’t stray too far due to stomach cramps, but stood on the Pier Street bridge, one of my favourite views now has a gorgeous bright green jacket on.
The canalside trees, now so tall they can obscure the view to Humphries House are looking bright and fresh, as are the woodlands dotted over Clayhanger Common where the different species, leaf types and shapes make for a wonderful tapestry.
And on the water below? Blossom petals drifting lazily of the water surface.
It might not be much, but after those dark days and wet winter, it looks wonderful to me.
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April 23rd – It’s appropriate for St. George’s day I guess that apple blossom is now out. For all th frilliness and glamour of the ornamental cherries, you really can’t beat traditional apple blossom. Pink and white, it’s a gorgeous spectacle, and very British.
It smells rather nice too.
It’s in hedgerows all over, but this lovely specimen is on the canal between Clayhanger Bridge and the Black Cock.
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April 20th – I see on the canal near Walsall Wood that the sallow trees are coming into blossom. These spiny female catkins will soon start spewing huge amounts of fluff.
Sallow or goat willow is a member of the wider willow family, and grows profusely hereabouts. After the initial pretty male catkins have passed – pussy willows – then come the female catkins that you can see here. Once these peculiar green flowers pollinate, they generate wind-borne seeds in a few weeks: these evolve in the form of a large cloud of fluff that for a few days will coat the canal, towpaths, woodland paths, verges and road margins.
Sallows are not the only willow to do this peculiar thing, but they are certainly the largest group to do it hereabouts.
Bizarre, but fun…
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February 29th – it seems odd this is the third February 29th in the history of this nearly nine year old journal, but it’s just the way the dates fall I guess.
On the canal at Walsall Wood, another subtle sign of spring – pussy willow catkins. Like the hazel ones, the male flower of the smaller willows.
Bedraggled, wind-buffeted, but in some proliferation. As I’ve noted all week, spring is coming, it’s not holding back. It just needs some decent weather to accelerate the process.
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February 17th – The day after one of the worst rainstorms I can remember, I was in Telford.
The trains I needed mercifully had not been terribly badly affected.
It was still windy and damp, and rather chilly – so I was surprised to spot this blossom by the cycleway through Stafford Park.
I was initially confused, then remembered some odd species of cherry blossom early, before the leaves come on.
An early but wonderfully unexpected beauty.
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