August 2nd – Another summer soldier that looks superb in rain is the dog rose. Still flowering well and looking gorgeous, like the willow herb they line the paths, tracks, verges and edgelands of town and country, and I think few people really notice them.
Which is sad, because as these in Darlaston show – growing outside a disused factory – they really are beautiful.
So many unsung heroes amongst the wayside flowers.
July 20th – People seem to think I’m negative about buddleia, but I’m not really. It’s a beautiful purple shrub that lights up late summer wonderfully, and it’s not known as the butterfly bush for nothing – the Lepidoptera love the huge flowerhead composed of tiny, individual blooms.
My problem with this plant – if it’s a problem at all – is that for me, it’s a harbinger of urban decay. It’s so successful in urban environments that it’ll grow well in a patch of soot in vertical brickwork. At this time of year, throughout the urban expanses of the UK you can see buddleia sprouting and flowering from derelict buildings, bridges and rail lines. Seemingly one of the first signs that nobody cares for a place anymore is that it starts flowering in purple at high summer.
You can’t blame the plant for that…
May 11th – On the Walsall Canal, despite the grim weather, life was continuing as normal. There are coot chicks in abundance, and I’ve been savouring the excellent description of them by Phil Griffin as ‘looking like badly knitted moorhens’ – they certainly are odd little things.
There was blossom aplenty from lilac and ornamental cherry, and the heron paused in it’s preening to look crossly at me, as if I’d broken it’s train of thought.
All of this in a 50 metre stretch of canal in the centre of urban Walsall.
April 22nd – A rare break in the clouds saw the sun shine as I came up from the canal at Bentley Bridge on my way back from an errand at lunchtime. To left and right here, out of shot are massive scrapyards, yet running like a green vein through the centre, the canal; peaceful, tranquil, verdant.
I love the Black Country and this scene typifies the way it’s canals exist as magical green natural corridors through great sprawls of urban life.
Wonderful.
April; 20th – In Wednesbury, cherry blossom against an azure blue sky, one of the finest sights of spring, and a very long time coming this year, it seems.
I adore the sight of the thousands upon thousands of pink-white flowers, the confetti of their falling petals on the breeze and the sweet scent as one passes by.
So nice to have the sun back. Let’s hope it warms cup a bit soon.
April 20th – I was rolling down a back street in Birchills, Walsall when I spotted this fellow in the road. Outwardly in rude health, but clearly dazed, I think he’d had glancing contact with a vehicle and was stunned. I took his photo – chaffinches a re glorious, beautiful wee birds – then gently picked him up, checked him over and popped him in a nearby hedge to hopefully recover.
Wonderful to get so close to such a beautiful bird, but sad the circumstances in which it occurred. Hope he was OK. I think I probably saved him from being squished if nothing else.
April 7th – Passing through Telford mid morning, I passed a bank of daffodils on an embankment near the cycleway. There were were several varieties of the flower here – normal types, some lovely feathery yellow ones, white ones and others with beautiful orange centres. They were an absolute joy to the heart after a few bad commutes – as were the beautiful polyanthus in the planter at Telford station.
This is a very unusual spring, but the usually short lived spring flowers seem to have been in bloom for ages now, and i like that very much. After the darkness of winter, it’s always good to see a fine display of these gorgeous plants.
March 31st – Also greening up is the canal through Catshill to Chasewater; the traditional demarkation between urban and rural, this green line of water may be only feet wide but the difference from one side to the other are polar opposites.
But on a mellow, sunny spring evening, with low sun and long shadows, I wouldn’t be anywhere else.
I keep saying it; I shouldn’t have to – be we live in a surprisingly beautiful place. Treasure it.
March 12th – Ah, the waterbirds of Birmingham are also getting busy. Cormorants, tufted ducks (not goldeneye as I said on Twatter), herons and Canada geese are all regrouping for the spring. Good to see the herons back, I haven’t seen many at all lately, and the prehistoric appearance of the cormorants is always a great thing to see.
March 7th – I don’t often ride through The Butts in Walsall, although it’s a lovely place. The tightly packed streets of traditional terraces are lined with parked cars, and any ride through this fascinating place is marred by conflict with other traffic, which is a great shame as I miss scenes like this.
Stopping to wait for my companion caught up further back, I looked up Borneo Street to see a perspective sunset, perfectly replete with TV aerials, chimneys and the ghostly white LED street lights.
I could really love this place, were it not such a challenge to cycle around.
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