Ouseburn, Newcastle I hoped the chance juxtaposition of folk art and wild flowers at a once derelict site did not give way to a municipal shrub scheme cum litter trap
The lower Ouseburn valley, a cradle of the industrial revolution, not far from Newcastle, has been transformed. New apartments built on the banks of this tributary of the Tyne stand on what was, until recently, a site of dereliction.
Every summer the place used to be covered in colourful wild plants. This morning I stopped to admire the remnants of this floral tapestry making their last stand in a neatly asphalted and paved landscape. A smattering of scarlet corn poppies were blooming among grasses on a steep bank, alongside some especially fine specimens of weld, Reseda luteola, or dyer’s rocket. The plant’s inflorescences, thrumming with bumblebees, which were nesting among the brick rubble, towered above the steps that led up the slope beside this patch of wildness.
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Source: Guardian Environment