Author: BrownhillsBob

I told the truth - but told it bent. Wandering around bemused and ranty since 2007.

October 1st – In and around Hints church, the fungi is booming; most of these examples were spotted in God’s Acre itself, with some remarkable specimens growing undisturbed amongst the gravestones and memorials. I spent a happy half hour there, just seeing what I could find, all the time with the feeling I was being watched closely. 

Then the reason for my feeling of paranoia became clear – I was being watched by an elegant, snooty siamese cat from the edge of the graveyard!

October 1st – With autumn really bearing down on me now, no choice but to embrace it. I went out on a really very grey afternoon with a strong wind and a heavy heart. I went to visit a new cafe I’d found, and despite arriving well within stated opening hours, they were no longer serving.

Some businesses confound me.

Heading out to Canwell and Hints though, the season was setting the hedgerows and trees ablaze, the scenery was fighting to show it’s beauty through the gloom and it was hard to be down.

So I just rode on and really, really enjoyed it.

September 30th – A wet, miserable grey day when little went right and I really didn’t feel the love at all. I really needed to be out and get some air, but work was demanding and the conditions not conducive. I’m really missing that Indian summer I was hoping for.

In the early evening gloom with night descending, I popped out on some errands, and spun around Brownhills. In steady rain on the Pier Street bridge, I remembered how beautiful this place is in the darkness of even a wet, grey, loveless evening.

September 29th – As I came back to Brownhills, a great, violet sunset. I’d be interested to know why so many sunsets lately tend towards the purple rather than the red or orange. It must be meteorological, but it really is beyond my knowledge.

I love that view over Anchor Bridge to the weest. Always reminds me I’m coming back to Brownhills.

29th September – Near Walsall, my attention was snagged on a bright, sunny morning by a small family, apparently living in an open, junk-cluttered garage just off a main street. They seem healthy, happy and don’t look malnourished. Clearly wary of humans, but mum, who was attentive and nervous of me, stood her ground and watched her kittens closely.

A rare treat. I have passed this with the location to the Cats Protection branch as I strongly suspect these cats are feral.

September 28th – Terribly grainy, long distance ride cam footage of something nice about darkness commutes: Urban foxes.

Follow this short film and you’ll join me cruising around the bend by Coppice Woods on Green Lane between Walsall Wood and Sheffield. Out of the darkness to the right darts a large, fit male fox, who jumps the ditch into the wood.

Fantastic to see, and his antics will brighten many a dark commute over winter.

It’s not all dark. I just wish the footage was better. You may need to click the full screen button to see it best.

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

September 28th – My quest for fly agaric – the red and white spotted toadstool of folklore and fairytale – was satisfied today when I visited a familiar patch that unexpectedly exists between the Darlaston Road and canal in Walsall. 

This edge land, under self-seeded silver birches at the top of the cutting, is host to the largest colony of these toadstools I’ve ever seen; there must be at least a hundred of them in various stages of life.

This is a remarkable find and confirms my suspicion that I’ve largely missed the season this year – they seem to have peaked earlier this year, but this spot which is quite hard to climb to contains some of the best, most perfect examples of the fungi I’ve ever seen.

All in one of the most built-up, urban patches of Walsall.