Monday March 22nd 2021 – A surprisingly pleasant day, almost as if spring was finally getting on her throne.
On a verge on Walsall’s dismal new Ring Road, a lone dandelion waved the flag for the season and happiness in general as I stopped to answer a call on my way to work.
Sometimes simple things make your day.
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March 3rd – I’ve honestly lost track of whether this is an early or late spring. I don’t suppose it matters, but I think it’s a bit early. The rain seems to be tailing off a bit now, and the daffodils are taking over from the crocuses which are now passing over.
Early, passing through Walsall Wood, the patch of grass next to the Red Lion, in front of St Johns Close – remarkably claimed to be a ‘village green’ some years ago to best a planning application – looked gorgeous as many patches of Walsall verge at the moment with a dense, beautiful carpet of flowers.
This is always an excellent display and never gets enough appreciation.
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October 9th – The fungus is really coming on now, I’m pleased to see a whole variety of mushrooms, balls, slime, mildew and brackets, some plain and some strikingly colourful.
Every day is a new discovery, and is one of the nicer aspects of autumn. These tiny parasols were growing on a grass verge in Chasetown, and although plain now, will be very striking when fully grown.
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July 18th – A flower which I’m convinced has had me puzzling before is St. john’s Wort. This tidy, bushy shrub is planted ornamentally on a lot of industrial estates, and I never identify with it as being British – it seems exotic.
Also when people talk about wort I always think off plants like ragwort, or sticky wort.
Having caught the morning’s showers the whole bush glistened and shimmered. A coating of raindrops can only ever add to a plant’s appeal, after all…
Thanks to everyone on Facebook who helped me identify this one.
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July 2nd – On the same industrial estate, a treat for the bees and bugs is blooming beautifully – cotoneaster, a stable of urban hedgerows and borders.
The tiny pink-red flowers are a bee magnet and every bush is alive with visiting insects, but not just that: These flowers turn into sugar-laden orange-red berries beloved of blackbirds and other songbirds in autumn, helping get the avian locals through winter.
Everywhere you look right now, nature is helping itself get along. It really is beautiful.
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July 2nd – On a grass verge on an industrial estate near Darlaston, hoverflies were busy pollinating the hawkweed flower – and both the flower and fly are overlooked stalwarts.
Hawkweed in all it’s forms is a common, bright splash of colour in town and country alike, and is a dweeler of the edgeland, wasteland and verge doing nothing more than providing beautiful flowers. Sadly often regarded as a weed or mistaken for dandelions, it gets sadly passed by but really is worth a look.
The hoverflies are one of the important pollinators, and although disguised to look like bees or wasps for protection from predators, they’re totally harmless.
Two unsung heroes, supporting each other…
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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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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 23rd – Also yellow in Footherley, but less dramatically so, was the yellow archangel.
A gorgeous member of the nettle family, this fascinating plant is beloved by bees and looks stunning. I only became aware of what it actually was last year and it’s captivated me ever since.
A lovely wild tower.
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