Cycling out of London towards Spring

The other Sunday I needed to get out of London. It had rained non-stop for days, and not a clean rain but dirty, covering everything in a greasy grey dullness: the streets, the buildings, the people. Anything bright or joyful had washed away. Even life seemed to have been lost – no bird song, no leaves in the trees, grass turned to mud.

Sunday was the only day when there seemed to be a break in the drab clouds, so I got on the bicycle and cycled north out of town. I had a gentle tailwind to propel me along. The wind is to cycling as light is to photography. Great light can create a beautiful photograph and the wind on your back can create a wonderful cycle ride.

As I slipped through the northern suburbs of London, I always have the feeling that I am shedding off layers of the city. It can take time. There are false starts as tantalising fragments of countryside are encircled by housing, busy roads, or industrial estates. Eventually, though, London and its acolytes were behind me.

My destination was a churchyard without a church. There had been one once, but it was long gone, moved up the road closer to the living congregation, leaving the older members of the parish to their last resting place.

Between their memorials snowdrops were scattered across the ground, sometimes in ones or twos but often in great swathes, hugging the ground, testing the air, and pushing through the memories of autumn, the fallen leaves. Around them was the promise of later spring as the first shoots of wild daffodils were beginning to show. This was what I had been seeking out. After the old dark drear winter, a promise that things would turn.

I set about photographing, getting down close to capture the flowers in their surroundings. If any passers by had seen a man in full cycling kit sprawled across the ground this was what he was doing! As I photographed, the clouds gradually broke and the sun, still a little watery, appeared. Overhead in the tops of the trees I could hear the sounds of bird song. The delicate white flowers seemed to glow.

If you would like to view the route I took out of London check out Komoot