WME Flickr Focus - April 2024

Can you believe we're a third of the way through 2024 already? April has brought its customary mixture of showers and blossoms with a fair amount of sunshine, and I'm pleased to say it's been a solid month in terms of photostream progress too. Here's what I've plucked from the potting shed over the last few weeks...

As was the case in March, our Head Gardener has been Exploration Extra although it hasn't quite managed to maintain its total stranglehold on my updates this time around. Among the prized blooms are a Kendal 2021 sequence of Ulverston mural snapshots, picking out illustrated extracts from the life of Sir John Barrow during his diplomatic career. Sizergh Castle sprouted up with prime topiary pyramids and an orchard view, not to mention some succulent lily pads, while Sedbergh had me trying to dodge stray cricket balls in the vicinity of Loftus Hill.

From the Lake District we'll progress northwards into Scotland where two albums have been lovingly tended to. Edinburgh 2017 receives an injection of Scottish banknotes plus a glimpse of Preston Tower (a historic Prestonpans landmark), whereas Southerness 2022 cultivates seafront stones with a lingering look at my favourite lighthouse muse. Back on English soil, Manchester 2021 nurtures some Navigation Road station seedlings with Metrolink branding and a platform exit sign. A Stretford Washeteria shopfront isn't the prettiest of sights but they all count. 

Still with Exploration Extra, we'll duck into our metaphorical greenhouse to grapple with budding growth from Northampton 2018. An All Saints Church clockface has taken root alongside some Wantage Road cricket stand action but I'm most taken with aspects of Monks Park Working Mens Club with its lovely corner lettering. Down in the South West, Brean 2022 has been boosted by the presence of Weston-super-Mare seal art, not forgetting an airing for the Old Colonial pub or Minehead's 'metal head' cast of characters (one coastguard creation thus far).

That's likely to be the last we'll hear of Exploration Extra for a little while as the focus switches once more to my main West Midlands galleries. These too have been getting green-fingered of late, especially WME Solihull which has propagated two Kingshurst bus pictures (the 54 at Fordbridge Road and the 71A by the shopping precinct). WME Birmingham mulches over to Albert's Schloss for hints of delectable Pilsner Urquell Czech lager, then WME Dudley sows the seeds of Amblecote pubbiness care of the Maverick and the Starving Rascal.

Elsewhere, WME Wolverhampton is not usually one to be overshadowed but contents itself with a spot of All Saints street sign pruning courtesy of Chain Gardens and Forge Road, part of the new estate off Steelhouse Lane. That just leaves us with the horticultural efforts of WME Telford which yields an Aqueduct pub interior (the Britannia) and a branch out of Bayley Lane from Arleston. The hosepipe and trowel are on standby for further gardening in May, so until then please enjoy the photos!