June 29th – Nipping to Aldridge later that day (I cruise through all the posh places dontchaknow), I took the canal up through Walsall Wood. As summer advances, the floral pallet changes. The hedgerows and wasteland are now full of beautiful white bindweed, or Creeping Jenny as it’s sometimes known. Although considered a weed by most, I love the ivory white flowers and variety of bugs they attract.
27th June – Of all the flowers taking part in the riot of summer colour right now, my heart is stolen mostly by the vetch that grows on verges and field margins, forming a thick, yellow, orange and red carpet of vivid, joyous colour. When I was a kid, we used to call this delicate but hardy plant ‘Egg & Bacon’. I think it’s gorgeous.
This fine example is proliferating on the embankments to the cycle tack through the Goscote Valley. A fine sight indeed.
May 13th – the flowering of Vetch – the wildflower so common in meadows, in heath grasslands and verges is one of the signs of summer. There are several varieties in the UK, and the most familiar is the yellow and deep crimson variety that grows flat in lawns, often too low for the lawnmower to cut. As kids, we called this ‘Egg and Bacon’.
This example, spurred on by the recent showers, was proliferating near the bypass bridge at Chasewater Heaths.
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