June 3rd – Also dotting the verges of Darlaston today, white clover – well, more cream-brown really.
Usually later than it’s pink-red sousin, white clover is another gorgeous, overlooked classic I love to see.
Always worth studying the grass under your feet to see what gems lurk there in summertime.
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June 3rd – Another day, another wildflower appearance, and one that although very common, is lovely if you look closely – the humble bramble, or blackberry blossom.
Very white, delicate almost as if mate from paper, and always creased. Fascinating little flowers hardly anyone pays attention to.
It might be me but they seem early this year…
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May 30th – Also blossoming now is the delightful and humble elder, a shrub beloved of winemakers for hundreds of years. It grows in woods, hedgerows, on wasteland and anywhere it can. Here in Harlaston it’s thriving at the back of Victoria Park.
The tiny, beautiful white flowers have a gorgeous scent and can be used to make wine or champagne: the berries they make way for – deep red, almost black – make a heavy, heady wine that’s almost legendary.
This gives the winemaker a tasty dilemma: White and floral or red and strong?
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May 26th – On a weary recovery day, I pottered to Brownhills on an errand, and passed the canoe centre at Silver Street.
Although not as beautifully maintained as it once was – the planted boat has been left to wild and weed over – the poppies and other flowers growing on the embankment are gorgeous.
Some days it’s about distance, some days it’s about stopping at the wayside to admire the flowers…
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May 17th – More wildflowers today: Clover, ox-eye daisies and and one I can’t identify with lovely small delicate white flowers.
Again, all of these examples are on a quiet, otherwise anonymous industrial estate, populating the grass verges.
The wonder of nature.
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May 15th – Continuing the wildflower theme, there’s a riot of colour on the less-frequently mown verges ate the moment: Daisies, vetch, trefoil, buttercups, and on this one outside where I work, every tiny, absolutely tiny bright red poppies.
Look closely and there are colours from white to dark blue, yellow to red.
My favourite time of year. Everything is growing and clamouring for attention. I just wish they didn’t mow the grass so often!
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May 7th – Further up the canal at Bentley Bridge near Darlaston Green, another sign of spring: The roses are flowering on the edge of the canal – rather poetically between scrapyards either side of the canal, between which the green vein of the canal ambles, being beautiful.
The roses smell gorgeous and are a true joy to the heart in such grey times.
I don’t know where the warmth and sun are hiding but we could do with them back. But in the meantime, this is a wonderful burst of brightness for sure.
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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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April 16th – I had to nip to Tipton at lunchtime. Just as the rain came, which was a bit of a bugger if I’m honest.
Still, I donned waterproofs; the day seemed to be warming up and the wind had died away, so the steady drizzle wasn’t a bind.
Then, as I arrived in the town centre, this astonishing bed of spring flowers; a riot of colour on a grey, miserable afternoon.
I don’t know who planted them or who looks after them, but my goodness they are spectacular.
Take a bow, whoever you are – and thank you.
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April 16th – Captured in the early morning soft sun, a tree in blossom just off Station Street in Darlaston near Victoria Park.
This is good twitter pal Naseerah Faulkner’s favourite tree, and I took the picture just for her.
Have a good day, yow!
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