October 7th – Time for a seasonal warning, I guess. Along the canal from Anchor Bridge to around Wharf Lane Bridge, the hedge flail has been out and the towpath is covered in cut foliage debris and thorns from the hawthorn that constitutes the hedge here. This thorns are just lying, waiting to be picked up in soft tyres where they’ll quickly cause a period of deflation.
If your rubber is a bit thin, best avoid this route for a couple of weeks until the thorny problem has passed.
October 7th -The Saturday was just as grey, and seeking fresh air I went out in steady rain, dried off for a short while, then returned home again in penetrating drizzle.
My seasonal barometer, the horse chestnut at Home Farm, Sandhills is currently wearing autumn colours, and will soon be naked once more, it’s green majesty having pleased me throughout the summer. Now it’s the turn of the fungus, and on the bank near Wharf Lane on the canal, where I thought there were to be none this year, the fly agaric are having a riot amongst the ferns under the silver birches.
It looks like contrary to my previous assertions, the fairytale red fungus with white spots is having another excellent year.
October 6th – For all my (uncharacteristic) shoe-gazing, there was brightness; in the nasturtiums growing from a pavement fissure near a cellar hatch; in the flowers of the River Gardens and it’s rather cheeky robin, and in the swans and their goose-pal napping where once rowing boats were hired.
The love-lock restriction amused, as you’d need a seriously large one to clamp on the Jubilee Bridge, and the cleverly named coffeeshop made me double take.
It was an afternoon as English as tuppence, really, and I did rather enjoy the self-indulgent introspection of it.
October 6th – For reasons too complicated to go into here, my moaning about the daily routine and the greyness of life and the weather were heeded by fate and I found myself visiting Matlock and Matlock Bath in the afternoon on a work related trip. Having to leave a vehicle behind, I’d taken my bike and had a ride down the A6.
Matlock is a nice enough town, with some great architecture, but could do with a little more variety in the shops. But I have to say on the whole it’s a classic Derbyshire river-valley town; beautiful, unpretentious and charming.
Further south, at Matlock Bath, things were a shade more grim. Matlock Bath seems to have been in steady decline since I first visited the place in the 1980s. A tourist stop off and motorcyclist haunt, this odd little town clings to the Derwent gorge with an air of faded, seedy seaside glamour. There must be eight or more chip shops; several sweet shops selling exactly the same stuff, and more than a handful of jaded amusement arcades and pubs.
The architecture and riverside are beautiful; but there are many closed shops and it’s hard to escape the feeling of something passed from life, if not exactly to death, then to some sort of ghost existence.
But then again, it’s possible that Matlock Bath has been like this ever since it’s heyday in the Victorian years. The place reminded me of one of those lost seaside resorts that were once locally popular but now are only half remembered, like Rhyl or Withernsea.
Perhaps it was the season and the weather, but the sadness of this place was almost enjoyable.
Perhaps on a sunny, summer day it acquaints itself better.
October 5th – A headache-grey, overcast and unpleasant day that was as grim and hard to face as the weather on the commute. Work is challenging at the moment and leaving me incredibly tired, day after day.
I’ve never known a summer end so abruptly and just dive headlong into a grim, grey, lifeless autumn like this – yes, the fungi is plentiful and the trees beautiful; but day after day the grey, sunshineless gloom is hard work.
I need a holiday. Returning home via a gloomy Catshill Junction, I was, for once fed up of the view.
October 4th – There is sun, though, despite my constant grumbling, and in my beloved green urbanity of Darlaston, the leaves are turning and it is absolutely beautiful.
Some days, even just popping to the Post Office is an unassailable joy…
October 4th – This is a great Autumn for fungi – everywhere I look there seem to be great examples of different species, and stuff I haven’t seen before.
This interesting clump of button toadstools is growing on the exposed, fractured roots of the spot where a tree fell near the Tannery flats in Walsall. I think it may be some kind of honey fungus, but I’m really not sure. It’s really colourful and the photo doesn’t do it justice.
I suppose this is the tradeoff for the damp, grey autumn – great toadstools!
October 3rd – I’d forgotten my camera, I was heading home late and flustered, what an unfortunate time to witness an astonishing sunset.
Looking from Kings Hill west to Wolverhampton, across the ether the cellphone mast silently talks endlessly to, the sky was bright crimson, rippled and utterly stunning.
And the phone didn’t capture it at all. Bugger.
Ah well, there will be other sunsets that hopefully, catch me better equipped.
October 2nd – And then, still chasing my delivery notes, another wonder I’ve not spotted before: an apple tree growing beautiful, edible looking apples just out of reach on scrub between two factory yards.
Birds are loving the fruit, which are ripe now and falling to the ground untouched. They looked beautiful against the blue sky with the turning leaves like that.
Wonder if they’re as tasty as they look? They’re quite large.
October 2nd – This has really, really surprised me. Mooching about the industrial estate where I work in Darlaston, I was looking for some paperwork that had blown up the road, and retrieving it from a hedge, spotted these beauties thriving beneath.
I see earth star fungus on Clayhanger Common in December, but wasn’t aware they grew this early. Looking like they’re clay or plastic, they are the most extraordinary fungi I’ve ever seen, and finding them is a real treat – there is a whole colony there, growing undisturbed in a roadside bed hardly anyone would ever notice.
Amusingly, Tumblr (the blog platform this journal runs on) has a system that automatically scans images posted, and detected these photos as being indecent. Sent for re-review, they were obviously passed as a false alert.
It just goes to show, some shapes recur throughout nature…
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 