An Evening Bike Ride

After a cold spring, the heat has arrived at last.  Near record temperatures have been recorded locally and the spell of dry weather has enabled local farmers to cut sileage and make hay.  The patchwork of fields have changed colour to reflect this, dark green for uncut grass and growing crops, to pale green and brown, for the fields which have been recently worked.  Riding the bike during the day in this heat, is hot, thirsty, work.  I prefer to venture out in the cooler evenings, as it never really gets that dark, even at 11.30pm at night, but lights are still necessary.  Cycling on a summer evening in this part of the world enables the rider to experience the rich, heady purfume of the wild Honeysuckle growing in the roadside hedgerows, bats swooping after flies under the overhanging trees, young rabbits in the grass verges and the occasional sight of a fox or badger.  The haunting cry of a vixen can often be heard travelling along the quiet byways.  The Meadowsweet is only coming into flower and soon it's perfume will be added to the experience.  With the spring being so late and cold this year, the Dog Roses put on a mighty show, in the local hedgerows.  The colours varied from white through to shocking pink.

It is amazing the difference in colour between blooms of the same species of plant within the space of a few hundred yards.  That dreaded phrase from school exam questions from decades past springs to mind....'Compare and contrast'.  Sadly, the roses have almost finished flowering and their next stage of exhibitionism will be in the late summer as their rose hips ripen to a dark red.  It is a reminder, if ever one was needed, how much more you can see, hear and smell whilst riding a bicycle