Galleries

June 20th – Some plants have interesting buds, as well as the blooms themselves. Amongst this set I’d venture the thistle to be king. Prickly and prolific, they aren’t yet in flower on the verges of Stonnall, but it won’t be long now. This hardly, very British plant, beloved delicacy of donkeys, is changeless and a stalwart of the ecology of our country, yet somehow alien; what other plant maches it in the UK for sheer tactile hostility? Only the stinging nettle, I guess…

June 20th – Readers seem to be enjoying the wildflower theme of late, so today I decided to continue with it. Ragwort gets a bad press, somewhat unfairly. A member of the daisy family, it’s host to a number of butterfly, moth and insect species. Yes, it’s toxic to horses, but both have co-exesited for many centuries, and modern scares about horse deaths appear to be wildly overstated. Ragwort is a very hardy, tough plant with beautiful yellow flowers, The buds are particular works of organic engineering, too. Sadly, all too often overlooked for less common specimens, it brings a dash of colour to field, scrub and verge throughout summer. These lovely examples were growing on a patch of scrub by the M54 embankment in Telford.

June 19th – continuing with the flora, there are lots of these delightful purple flowers in the hedgerows along the Chester Road from Stonnall to the Shire Oak crossroads. At first glance, thy look like a thistle, but are smooth leaved, not prickly. They put me in mind of clover, almost. Anyone any ideas? Is it another type of cornflower, perhaps? Whatever, it’s absolutely divine.

June 19th – cycling back from Blake Street station, I took a spin up through the backlanes of Litte Aston and Stonnall. There seems to be a bit of a wildflower theme going on at th moment, and when I spotted this patch of poppies growing in a ripening oilseed rape field at Little Aston Forge,I just had to take a picture. In the distance is Shenstone. A lovely view.

June 18th – I noticed cycling back home that the field between the sewage works and Goblin Wood in Walsall Wood seems to be host to a crop of broad beans, or at least, beans of some variety. Last year this field grew quinoa, and I guess growing a legume will re-nitrate the soil for good crop rotation. The crop looks healthy, despite being a little ravaged at the southern edge due to the weather. An interesting and unusual sight.

June 17th – My deer magnet is clearly functioning well right now. These two delightful yearling hinds were grazing on the scrub adjacent to the railway track at Chasewater Heaths. Note that they’re still very young, and have the traces of their juvenile whit spots still present in their summer coats. They happily browsed the vegetation whilst keeping an eye on me, eventually wandering into the thicket nearby. A lovely sight, and one I still pinch myself in disbelief, every time I see it.

June 17th – Birdsfoot trefoil is one of the great flowers of summer for me. Often called deer vetch or eggs and bacon, it grows in sandy soils in rough grass and heathland. This example, at Anglesey Basin, near Chasewater, is in fine health. This is one of the yellow blooms that dapples verges and meadows this time of year, along with ragworts and buttercups. It’s normally a mixture of yellow and crimson blooms, but there doesn’t seem to be much of the crimson component this year. I’m wondering if there’s a climatic effect evident there…

June 16th – I ad to go to Walsall to pick something up from the central sorting office. The weather was atrocious – windy and rather wet. I bit the bullet at lunchtime and pulled on shorts – wet legs dry quicker than wet trousers – and actually found it to be warm and oddly pleasant. I cycled along the canal, and noticed the flowers were in fine form, if a little battered. Orchids and waterlillies graced the Wyrley and Essington, whilst in the Goscote Valley upon my return, dog roses and sweet peas grew in scented abundance. Not a bad ride, all in all.

June 14th – I have no idea what the origins of this building are, but I suspect it to have been a school of some sort. Today found me in Leicester… cycling back to the station from the outskirts, I headed past the University. Just before it, on the junction of Wellford Road and University Road, stands this fascinating building. Clearly expanded during it’s lifetime, it’s now the Freemans Common Health Centre, and I think it’s rather wonderful. Particularly eccentric is the rather odd bellcote and weathervane. Positioned somewhat peculiarly, to me it looks precarious and about to overbalance, although upon close scrutiny it’s clearly as sold as a rock. 
A fine building.