Now then. Most people of a certain age would think I am about to start writing about the 60s with a title like this. Yes, I am in my 60s and trying to cram as much into the daylight hours as possible, and yes I think the Lib Dems suggestion of legalising cannabis is a good thing for many reasons, and yes, I was too young to experience the hippie age even though I was well aware of it. Sgt Pepper is 50 this week and that was about as high as anything when I was 12.

Ever since I can remember, I have always been a sucker for a pretty flower. Back in the 60s we camped on many weekends during the trout fishing season as my old man went about in waders and Polaroids stalking brown trout in the clean fast flowing rivers of North Wales. No end of wild flowers presented themselves to my fascinated eyes and now, despite my penchant for shooting during the Winter months, a sea of blue or purple and red will always catch my attention. And so it did yesterday morning on a gruelling early morning ride into a steady headwind.

I had just passed the cemetery at Bramford, gasping on the uphill stage (how these Tour de wotsit riders ride up mountains I have no idea) and a sea of purple interlaced with poppies caught my eye. As is my want, I did not pause to snap it on the phone (I have average speed stats to maintain) but made a mental note of the early morning sun position, the lack of safe parking and a resolve to get back there with a camera worthy of making the image, or two, or three…

This first image has much in it from my Edgelands series, and interwoven links an many levels.
The foreground grabs the eye but the middle ground holds the Fisons factory at paper Mill Lane, recently shot on large and medium format Portra and in the distance is a freshly capped landfill site, plus the high tension power lines and their towers that march across our landscape. Quite what purple flower this is I do not know. I thought it was Statice from the bike but it is clearly not. Barley is interspersed with it also. It certainly was full of bees and butterflies though.