Tag: wildflowers

#365daysofbiking These lanes are mine

May 10th – It’s been a long time since I was out this way, and it was wonderful to be back. From the old bridge at Handsacre to the rugged charm of the church at Hoar Cross, the afternoon and evening were thoroughly gorgeous.

It was lovely to see the wildflowers in that churchyard, with the bugle putting on a particularly fine showing this season. But the view over the valley and the residents keeping careful watch on me were all part of a fantastic, rejuvenating ride.

Most summers, these lanes are usually mine, yet somehow in the chaos, illness and fatigue of recent months, I’ve let them slip from my grasp.

It’s time to rectify that.

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#365daysofbiking Flower power

April 30th – Nature gets me through times of no hope more reliably than hope gets me through times of no nature – and throughout the pandemic, for all the horror of the news and social media, the simplicity and beauty of the world continuing to turn about it’s seasonal axes is really keeping me going.

The hedgerows, waysides and edgelands are alive with ragwort, bluebells, green alkanet, forget me nots, dandelions and a whole host of others.

And on that daily exercise ride, they really bring joy to a troubled, concerned soul.

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#365daysofbiking Flower station

April 18th – Also on the MacLean Way – more traditional beauty is to be found on the site of Brownhills Railway Station, just in central Brownhills, behind the Smithys Forge pub on the old track – primroses. Loads of them.

I don’t know how they got here but they are truly stunning.

Well worth look.

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#365daysofbiking By my own hand

April 13th – Easter Monday was colder. Quite bitter, in fact, so I did essential maintenance on the bikes and pottered at home, before shooting out for a late spin up the canal to test the bike out.

At Clayhanger Common the cowslips are fully in bloom now and the sight of them fill me with pride – as I scattered the seeds that formed these colonies a fair few years ago now. I collected the seed heads from a patch in Stonnall and spread the seed at various spots on Clayhanger Common, not expecting them to take hold.

But they did.

I then used seeds from those patches to expand and create new ones elsewhere on the common.

And now, they’re all over it.

Something I will always be proud of.

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#365daysofbiking You ring a bell

April 11th – I wasn’t feeling great, so a short spin out over Castle Hill and back to Brownhills up the Chester Road.

In the last day, the Spanish bluebells had come out in the hedgerow near Fishpond wood, and as usual with this colony they ranged in shade from blue, to pink, to white.

A gorgeous spectacle on a day when I didn’t feel great.

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#365daysofbiking Angels of the hedgerows

April 10th – Another working from home day – indeed, it was Good Friday, so I took off for an exercise ride at teatime. The lanes and tracks of Stonnall, Shenstone, Raikes and Hilton were warm and quiet. I saw the odd fellow cyclist, or runner. But mostly it was just me, the birds and the flowers.

The stunning yellow archangel is looking gorgeous at Footherley again this year – a relative of the nettle, I hadn’t noticed it for years, and then it seemed I couldn’t stop spotting it in places where I must have seen it before, but never noticed it.

The grape hyacinths – muscari – are also like little shocks of blue in the hedgerows and gardens I slid past.

We may be locked down, but the riding is surprisingly good at the moment.

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#365daysofbiking Hello, petal

April 2nd – In these difficult and very strange times, I’m finding solace and joy in small things.

On a sunny morning, what can be nicer than the perfect, but very naturally dishevelled beauty of the common daisy, shedding pollen on to it’s perfect white tissue paper petals?

I think I’m starting to return to basic things again.

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#365daysofbiking Hawkish

April 1st – Every day now there’s a new flower to see on every journey – even the short ones.

Adding to the bright yellows of spring, a flower at first glance often mistaken for dandelions. Hawkweed.

This beautiful spring soldier is generally yellow but does come in a variety of colours and types. All dwell on edge lands, verges and in hedgerows.

This profusion of flowers is just what I need right now.

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#365daysofbiking Daffed

March 31st – The weather seems to be improving every day now – and despite the fact that my commute to work is on virtually empty roads, I’m still taking about the same time to ride it as the springtime attractions are far too beautiful to miss. This fantastic crop of daffodils cheer and welcome me every day on the industrial estate where I work.

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#365daysofbiking Keep trying

February 24th – And nature, she kept trying thought out the end of my journey.

Outside the place I was supposed to be an hour previously, this single yellow solitary soldier was the first of it’s cohort to wake from spring on the bank opposite the bike shed.

I felt proud and pleased for it, it’s comrades still in bud.

It made me much, much happier.

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