365daysofbiking Noble jacket:
October 5th – Darlaston is probably at it’s very best in autumn. An indisputably industrial, highly urbanised Black Country town with a huge amount of greenery, it wears the multi-coloured noble jacket of autumn beautifully.
In Victoria Park, looking towards the Mystic Bridge, autumn is just starting to paint the trees in shades of yellow, gold and orange.
The sadness of the summer’s loss is now passing, and I’m quite enjoying the change in the scenery.
365daysofbiking Buttered up:
October 5th – I said a good few weeks ago now that butter and eggs, or toadflax is one of the harbingers of summer’s end: When it comes into flower, you know the season is at an end.
Still going strong in early October, it’s one of the few things still in flower, resolutely brightening the canal towpaths, edgelands and hedgerows.
A beautiful, but sad flower.
#365daysofbiking Skywiring:
October 4th – On my way home I had business in Shenstone, and as I returned through the tiny hamlet of Lynn, darkness was falling with the most stunning, dramatic sky.
I loved the way id highlighted the overhead electricity lines, which are something I consider beautiful and mysterious. These complex arrangements of poles, cable, metal structures and ceramic insulators are ignored by most, but are essential to our daily lives.
Few study them, and even fewer understand their layout, function and protective equipment. But that’s the whole point: The mystery in the complexity.
Meanwhile, while I was admiring the wiring, I was being watched, and never noticed.
#365daysofbiking Stars on earth:
October 4th – Returning early this year, on a patch of edgeland on the industrial estate in Darlaston near where I work, one of the most remarkable fungi I’ve ever seen: an earthstar.
Just a couple at the moment, but one is deformed: but these bizarre organisms, when in their prime are stunning. A buff-coloured puffball emerges as it’s casing unfurls in almost petal-like sections around it, forming a star.
They look like they’re made of modelling clay or ceramic. They are absolutely astounding to see.
I adore fungi. It’s so unlike anything else.
#365daysofbiking Telephone man:
October 3rd – I stupidly left my camera at work, but took some shots with the phone camera over Clayhanger Bridge going to the village to undertake an errand on my way home. The phone is an iPhone XS and althoughhe range in the images is a little harsher than I’d like, phone cameras have come a long way considering the obvious limitations of the physical design.
I quite like these images, showing the the Brownhills Canal is also showing beautifully the colours of the season.
I also loved the sky reflection on the canal…
#365daysofbiking The united colours of autumn:
October 3rd – After the rain of the night before, the morning commute was warm, dry and almost humid. I made the very best of it by riding the canal the long way, and wasn’t disappointed – the autumn colours are very beautiful this year, and the canals and wooded areas of Darlaston are absolutely gorgeous.
There are some upsides to the time of year after all.
#365daysofbiking Sucked under:
October 2nd – The Suck is brutal this year. The dark evening commutes are hard and the driving is bad. But today was unexpected, unforecast drizzle all the way, and with no waterproof trousers, I was soaked and miserable.
This is the hard bit of winter. Dark, wet and cold, it’s going to get a lot worse before it begins to improve.
Every year this gets more and more daunting.
#365daysofbiking Maturing:
October 2nd – Spotted on the canal in the during the morning commute, both the Walsall Wood swan family and the Walsall group. All in rude health and maturing to adulthood.
Woody the single cygnet at Walsall Wood this year is clearly thriving and he was happily browsing the weed with his parents never far way, his white plumage really coming on now.
More advanced, and loafing at the back of the factories on Pleck Road, the large Walsall family were having a communal chill out and preen session.
It never ceases to amaze me the positions swans are comfortable to get their legs into…
#365daysofbiking Spot on:
October 1st – Not seeing may fly agaric this year yet, which makes me wonder if it’s a bad season for them.
The classic red and white spotted toadstool is a real patch of brightness in the autumn, and is much loved and the subject of a huge amount of folklore.
Heading out to Chasetown before work to drop something off, I saw these in the usual spot before Wharf Lane Bridge in Brownhills, just on the heather sandy embankment by the towpath.
I love to see these fascinating fungi.
#365daysofbiking Hi deer:
September 30th – after a barren period of hardly seeing any, it was ace to meet the deer at Chasewater, just by the picnic area.
They expressed mild interest in me, but were not overly bothered by my presence.
It doesn’t matter how much I see of these guys – they’ll always be magical to me.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 