Cycling through a cloud of pollen

Tonight I rode through a windstorm of downy tufts that had fallen from all the London plane trees that line my cycle route.

The air was awash with pollen and discarded flowers. It looked like a cloud of giant, yellow insects, swirling and gusting all around me.

The stuff went up my nose, in my eyes and down my throat. When I stopped at the traffic lights at Hyde Park Corner I saw that all the pedestrians were wearing the ‘tufts’ in their hair like weird decorations that had been caught there, unable to escape.

And here I was thinking that the only hazard I had to watch out for when riding my bicycle was busy London traffic – and the odd rogue duck!

9 thoughts on “Cycling through a cloud of pollen

  1. Treadly&Me, exactly! Although when I try doing this down Constitution Hill every morning there’s always some dozy pedestrian ambling in my way, plugged into their iPod oblivious to me ringing my bell!!

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  2. Oh my GOD, as someon ewho suffers terribly from hayfever, that would have be one of my worst nightmares. In fact, even THINKING about it right now my nose is starting to get itchy! :-0

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