July 5th – Passing the locks in Walsall, I noticed yet another heron; they are absolutely profuse this year and I see 6-8 on every journey to and from work. Whilst their diet is predominately fish, they will take young waterfowl chicks, and Mrs. Mallard was hurrying her fresh brood away, while the crow, for unknown reasons, squawked abuse at the grey fisher.
I love herons but being one of these extraordinary, comical birds today wasn’t a great gig, clearly.
The flames have now reached the very street I live on, where at about 9pm I smelt the smoke (a smell we’ve got used to this summer) and looked out of the window to see (1).
After the neighbours had called the fire brigade I set off to see this conflagration right outside a house (thankfully the house itself wasn’t burned and its residents weren’t hurt).
The extinguishing of the fire brought even more smoke (9 is the smoke drifting towards where I live and it got in my eyes on the approach) and (10) is the damage this morning, which thankfully wasn’t as bad as it might have been through the fire brigade’s efforts, though it’s still a distressing and infuriating thing to have to see.
July 5th – Always bittersweet to see the berries come; a sign that spring is well and truly gone and summer is peaking.
Still, the Belisha orange berries of the rowan or mountain ash are beautiful in their own right and will bring colour aplenty to hedgerows, parks, verges and thickets for weeks to come, as well as being foraged for jams and jellies.
You can’t escape the passage of summer, so best enjoy it.
July 4th – The odd things you see on the canals by chance: Under a bridge in Park Hall, Walsall, Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and good fortune, not on the towpath side but on the bumper ledge.
I wonder what her story is?
July 4th – Business in Brum at lunchtime, and a poodle back along the canal in the afternoon summer heat. The flowers right now are gorgeous – from the strong yellows of ragwort to the purples of willowherd – and even bindweed and wild sweetpeas, right there in the inner city.
The other colour was from art – the Annatomix piece featuring the tangram style fox in DIgbeth was astounding, but I also liked the subtle wit of the red heron nearby.
A weary, but lovely ride.
July 3rd – I noticed this tree on the way to work and I have idea what it is. Can anyone help? Curious looking bloom, I thought. In fact, Im not sure if it’s a bloom, or a fruit head.
I have no idea.
Help grateful received.
July 3rd – Summer ticks on and as I noted a few days ago, we’ve moved from flowing to fruiting.
Lots of berries are now developing on the branches, from haws to rowan berries and even plenty of ripening cherries.
These will bring with them reds, oranges and purples and a whole range of new colour as they and the season mature.
A wonderful time of year.
July 3rd – Growing along just about every lane, track, cycleway and footpath at the moment, a very much overlooked purple wildflower.
No, not thistle, but knapweed. Similar, knapweed is not hostile or prickly, but flowers similarly in strong purple, a favourite of pollinators and a great source of high quality nectar, it’s seeds feeding many songbirds too.
Sometimes the best flowers fly under the radar.
July 3rd – I had stuff to do in Telford mid-morning, and was eager to see how the footbridge project was progressing. I wasn’t disappointed.
On site, the assembled over-railway portion of the deck had been lifted into place as I suspected onto the lattice piers – which despite my scepticism last week appear to have been positioned without breaking any glass at all. Remarkable.
The crane used to lift the 96 tonne structure into place was being dismantled on site – by another crane. It was terribly meta.
It was heaven for a machine geek like me, I was transfixed for some time.
It’s nice to see the new footbridge taking shape at last.
July 1st – It was a great sunset, which I caught best from Meerash near Hammerwich.
The sunsets lately really have been excellent.
I’m also a sucker for radio transmitters and sunsets – I find something really enigmatic about them.
A great end to not the best day, but a good evening outing none the less.
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