Down by the canal

I walked along the canal path on my way to Sainsburys this afternoon ... and back again. It's really lovely there at the moment. The first thing I notice as I come down from the road onto the tow path is the scent of the water. Reminds me of other waterways, this afternoon I was thinking of the Thames.

A lot of the flowers are over now, but to my surprize I saw blackberries, and I mean ripe ones. I'd seen a few earlier somewhere else but had just thought that they must be in a spot that is a bit of a sun trap. The dog roses have more or less finished flowering too, though I saw a few bushes up on the road that were still in bloom. Instead of the flowers there are rose hips now.

A few ox eye daisies were still in flower just before I left the canal path to come back up on to the road. I'd've liked to've walked further along the canal but the way the roads are there it's easier as a pedestrian to leave the path just there. Most of the earlier flowers had finished blooming though there was quite a bit of lesser pink bindweed there and another plant that must be related to Cow Parsley and Hog Weed, a smaller plant though. The little bindweed reminds me of the coast.

It's a nice walk, slightly shaded by the trees. There weren't that many people there, though a few came by on bicycles, some people walking, and two barges passed on the canal.