The field of oil seed rape behind the house has burst into full yellowness under our sudden heat wave. Its scent is lovely too – for now. Later it will be all downhill to odour of rotting cabbage. Something to look forward to then. In the meantime I’ve been having great fun snapping away and capturing the glow in all directions. Those of you who often visit this spot will recognise the old windmill on top of Windmill Hill, seen here from my less than usual angle.
Regular Random Frequently Flying Scientist Desley Jane challenges us to spend only five minutes with a given subject. Please visit her to find out more.
Tish Farrell 
I love the way you focus on your subject, the rape seed flower. You change the angle and perspective to create variety within a single theme. Well done, Tish!
You are so appreciative, Peter. Many thanks 🙂
Love your comments Tish. Beautiful yellow, then all down hill 😊 You have inspired me for next season here.
Ah, that’s so nice to hear, Woolly. Good to spark some inspiration 🙂
Five very creative yellow minutes, Tish!
Thank you, Sue. Makes you wonder what Van Gogh might have done with a field of oil seed rape 🙂
There’s a thought!
I bet it breath taking when the sun hits it first thing in the mornings.
Yes, indeed. It faces east. And I do indeed have some photos taken early this morning. Will appear here sometime soon 🙂
Beautiful framing of the windmill
I was thinking of you when I took this shot. Hadn’t had a ‘haystacks’ moment lately.
Such a beautiful setting. Definitely a showstopper 💞
Thank you, Lisa
The equivalent of a roll in the hay? 🙂 🙂 It’s wonderfully uplifting, Tish, and very pretty in close up. I usually just see it over a hedge.
I’m rather thrilled to get to play in it. There are secret pathways in amongst the crop – made by the mega tractor when it was spraying. In places the plants are taller than me. It’s like a yellow forest.
That high? 🙂 🙂 I hope the spraying stuff wasn’t anything that would harm you.
They’re fairly careful about when they do it, and of course some of the applications are fertiliser rather than pesticide. Certainly the last dose a couple of weeks ago was. The plants grew from a foot high to five feet in a blink of an eye. And we do have a band of uncultivated field between us and the crop. But yes, it’s not something we’re altogether happy about.
When I grow up, I want to tell stories as you do. This is a beautiful yellow composition.
Sweet man! You do tell stories. And it was in your land, and among your people that I learned how to tell mine 🙂
I think you took away all the skill. I can’t seem able to tell a simple story
Now come along. It’s all about practise. You’re an architect. You understand foundations, walls and roofs. Or as the King says in Alice in Wonderland “Begin at the beginning – and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Thinking of Kenyan writers, I used to really love Wahome Mutahi’s Whispers column. There was a man who told a good yarn. Sadly no more with us.
Wahome Mutahi was great with the pen. I think there is some great talent showing up on the scenes
Fresh Kenyan talent – that’s really good to hear.
ATISHOO…
You and me, both. And it will get worse!
Gorgeous gallery of shots Tish 🙂 In all the time I was in the UK I never got up close to a rape field, so had no idea what the flowers actually look like (nor that they have odoriferous qualities).
Also quite a lot of bird life in amongst it – starlings and blackbirds. I think they must be after the little bugs.
🙂
five minutes is such a short while… ah, but everything is relative, we’re taught. Google is not providing me with the name in Hebrew, but I’ll keep looking. I had no idea such flowers (they are canola, aren’t they?) could get that high… but of course, we get higher still, walking among them. Right now we are getting a ferocious wind, and rain is expected shortly, so it feels more like winter than spring… but I’m going to look for these flowers as soon as the weather improves… thanks, Tish; it’s beautiful.
This crop, though an old one in its original form, is definitely a feature of intensive agriculture in the UK. I don’t remember seeing it as a child, but then in those days farmers still carried out traditional crop rotation plus manuring – leaving fields fallow every fourth year. Now oilseed rape seems to be the crop of choice between wheat growing. Views across the Shropshire landscape, and indeed much of England just now, are really quite startling. A bright yellow country!
What a glorious sight.
When you stand up on Wenlock Edge you look down on a great patchwork of bright green pasture and bright yellow canola.
I love the name – ‘Wenlock Edge’ – it really captures my imagination. I like the idea of looking down from the edge to a sea of green and yellow.
The name Wenlock is said to be Welsh, meaning white church, and appears to go back to post-Roman times. But before that, the prehistoric (Bronze Age) trading route across the Shropshire Hills into Wales probably went along Wenlock Edge. It is certainly a place that captures the imagination. At the moment its hanging woodlands have hazy blue carpets – bluebells!
I have never seen a bluebell beyond photographic representations. They seem such unlikely flowers – a carpet of blue in a green wood. How interesting that your area has such a long built history. I really enjoying seeing such places when I was in Europe and the UK.
The idea of such an ancient trade route really captures the imagination – I wonder what they traded?
You probably explain it somewhere on your blog but why the name ‘Edge’? Do the hills fall away in a cliff?
First the Edge. It’s an uplifted 400 million year old sea bed, so on its westerly side it is incredibly steep, almost sheer in places. I think I remember reading it’s 1000 ft at its highest. It’s about 20 miles long so very conspicuous as you come up from the Shropshire plain. As to the trade route, I discovered another prehistoric one when we were out yesterday in Clun (small South Shropshire settlement). These trade routes go back to the Neolithic at least. E.g. stone axes were exported from an ‘axe factory’ in what is now Wales. Other stone tools and weapons were apparently also traded as not everywhere had good sources of flint to make them. Later the Bronze Age smiths seem to have travelled about, basically exchanging old and broken items for new ones. At least this is the explanation for discoveries of caches of bronze tools that include broken stuff. Gold was another prehistoric trade item – sources in Wales. Also some pottery. And then there must have been the stories – oh, to be able to listen back in time to some of those 🙂
What a beautifully descriptive piece of writing. I can imagine the scene. The Edge sounds spectacular – it must have held special significance for those early traders. Your area sounds like a veritable font of stories that would really suit your writing style. In a way, I feel you are listening back in time and gathering the stories,
Glorious photos. I had no idea oil seed rape has a pleasant odour. Next time I see a field I will stop and smell the canola.
You have to pick your time though. Once the flowers start fading they are not so good. Also induce massive sneezing in some people, which would be me.
Hmmm…..could be me too.
I know rapeseed is much-maligned, but I do love these yellow fields, and close-up the flower is as beautiful as Honesty or a wallflower. Beautifully photographed, Tish.
Thank you, Ali. I wish though that farmers would go back to growing flax. There was a moment some years ago when we were treated to sky blue fields, and flax has so many uses and benefits and said to be good for the soil.
Amazing how different the shades of yellow are from different angles and from close up to far way
Yes, in some angles, it’s quite acidic. And others, more primrosey.
You can tell I’m a city girl, I didn’t know it had a bad smell, I just drive past it!
Well you might notice it later, even driving by 🙂
Reblogged this on Green, Health & Happiness.
Many thanks, Pete 🙂
Impresssively yellow.
It’s becoming rather addictive. How will I cope when the field is no longer yellow!
I know it was “fields of barley” but your post made me think of Sting singing “Fields of Gold”
That ‘s an excellent soundtrack you have conjured, Ruth. Thank you.
Isn’t it cool your photo evokes that beautiful song in my head?
It is indeed – one mind sparking another 🙂