A cold cloudy day with intermittent heavy showers of rain or hail, and only the briefest glimpses of sunshine. The brightness of oil seed rape escapees singing out from the verges brightens the day and gladdens the heart. There is much cow parsley already grown above waist height in these damp conditions and looking very pretty with its delicate lace like flowers. Other verges have been mown, and are now sprinkled with tiny white daisies, and flat to the ground newly opened golden dandelions.
Trees are heavily leaved now, and even the oaks one of the last trees to leaf up are showing a brownish, mossy green covering, which thickens by the day. Elder, hawthorn and horse chestnut are all bedecked with their blooms. Here and there are laburnums with their bright yellow hanging racemes, which suddenly don't look as bright when a field of rape comes into view. Years ago there was never any evidence of wayside laburnums, now however more and more are springing up in roadside hedges and I find them very attractive and a good addition.
We are also seeing much more of the pretty pink and white blossom of verge side apple trees, no doubt inadvertently planted by travellers throwing apple cores from the windows of their speeding cars. These are good because even if humans never get to eat the fruit, it is a welcome addition to support the wildlife living thereabouts ---birds, mice, voles, shrews, foxes, badgers, and I'm sure many more. An apple core dropped on our lawn will within minutes have attracted not only birds, but also, mice voles, shrews and if put out when we are about, all other creatures except for birds will stay away and within a very short time ants will have covered the core.
As we turn onto the M25 at the M1 junction, there is a huge growth of pink campions followed by several patches of dark blue bluebells, judging by the strength of their colour I would think they are our traditional bluebells. These are very special and so much better than the foreign ones which seem to be taking over. Our English bluebells are perfumed and one of the joys of an English spring is to find a bluebell wood, walk into the centre and gaze around. The perfume linked with the nearness of each individual pretty flower and fading into an amazing blue haze in the distance is something everyone should endeavour to achieve, even if only once in their lifetime as the sight and smell will stay with them for ever.
On the right hand side of the car just before the A422 Maple Cross turning is an eye catching verge of deep yellow gorse bushes (Ulex Europaeus) over hung by yellow laburnum trees (Laburnum anagyroides) --- very pleasing. Gorse is very flammable and years ago was collected and used for firing bread ovens, it also is extremely prickly, bad for humans but good for birds who choose to nest therein, and is also much loved by bees.Laburnum is a beautiful tree but every part of it is poisonous, so some people refrain from planting it in their garden. These two, gorse and laburnum seem to me to be ideally suited to motorway verges, where they do no harm but are beautiful to look at, and provide food and shelter for wildlife.
A crow flies over, this is the first bird we have seen on this journey. I feel the more plants and bushes that spring up or are planted on roadside verges, the more wildlife will move in and these areas will become important wildlife sites.
On the left just past this, I am glad to see along the far side of the verge a newly planted hedge. I still grieve for the miles and miles of hedges that were torn up many years ago and the more that are planted now, the better it will be for wildlife. We are passing a long stretch of ox-eye daisies (Leucanthemum Vulgare), there are so many on the verge it looks as if there has been a heavy fall of snow. These wonderful large headed and tall wild daisies were my mother-in-law's favourite flower, we planted them in her back garden and over the years they migrated not only to other parts of her garden but also to her lawn where they sprang up in profusion if not kept in check!
We are once again passing a stretch of gorse bushes, they are golden yellow and the bees must love them ............. I wonder about the pollution from car exhausts that must be in and on them, and if it harms the bees in any way.
We are now on the M4 and the hawthorn bushes are so thick with blossom they make captivating viewing, these hawthorns their branches hanging heavy with blossom are on both sides and also on the right are large, bright yellow patches of oil seed rape.
Bypassing Slough we see a pigeon and two mallards flying across the motorway, followed almost immediately by a flock of seagulls.
The river Thames, so wide and always picturesque is swollen as we pass and it threatens to over spill its banks and spread on to the surrounding lush green fields.
Coming off the M4 at the Winnersh triangle, I'm surprised to see a long stretch of pale blue, which as we slow, I realise is forget-me-nots (Myosotis), very unusual on a roadside verge and most enjoyable. I wonder how they arrived there.
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