Author: BrownhillsBob

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

October 15th – I’m sure readers must be fed up of autumn colours and my obsession with fungi. For this, I apologise, but I do love the mycology and the best thing about autumn is the colour…

Noted today at Bentley Mill Way Aqueduct on the Walsall Canal – Lactarius of some description, commonly known as milk caps. I think this one may be a slimy milk cap, but there are s many types, without destroying them it can be impossible to tell.

The look like they’re decaying, but they aren’t; they look old, but they’re quite fresh. Again, I love the featheriness of the exposed gills. They were growing right on the edge of the towpath where vegetation had been cut back over the summer.

Fungi can be remarkably tenacious.

October 14th – Hadn’t seen these guys for a bit, but when I passed the overflow at Clayhanger Bridge, the three crossbreed mallards were having a conflab in the shallows. It was a bit like how I imagine a Roman bath-house to be, but with ducks.

What I particularly like about these chaps is that they’re always together, and that they always seem to be smiling.

October 14th – The twin sisters of Wednesbury are a bit of a muse for me at the moment. I took a photo of this view last week, but on a dull day. This evening as I trundled through Kings Hill, the spires were caught in golden, low sun that also caught the turning trees.

I love this view, the colours, the clock and the rooftops. Hope I see it in snow this year. Wonder if it makes a good night shot?

October 13th – Passing through Kings Hill, Darlaston today I noted activity on the site of the old Servis washing machine factory. This site – derelict for years, and once posited as the site of a new retail and leisure park by a prominent, diminutive Walsall Councillor – last year had a new housing estate approved for it. Like the Exidoor factory nearby, industry is being replaced in this area by houses.

I’m sure they’ll be nice, but it’s hard not to lament the loss of jobs and occupation.

Still, the drilling rigs are on site, and a surveyor has clearly been very thorough in marking out the subterranean hazards that lie beneath, judging by the spray-paint hieroglyphics all over the paths and road nearby.

October 12th – I note with interest that the Four Crosses at Sheffield – suddenly closed a while ago and up for sale for a few months – appears to have been sold.

Clearly the sale must have been to a commercial entity rather than the community, as the ACV deadline was January, this suggests that probably no ACV interest was received. Since the pub was priced well above it’s face value due too the vacant land behind, it’ll be interesting to watch what happens next.

People have clearly been in there as the windowsills have been cleared of ornaments left by the precious occupants.

I really hope it opens as a pub again. 

October 11th – A gentle run along the canal back to Brownhills was in order, and on the way, I noticed a beautiful sky. My grandfather used to call this a ‘Mackerel Sky’ – presumably after the markings of atlantic mackerel. 

He used to have a saying ‘Mackerel sky, 24 hours dry’ – and it broadly seems to work, I think. Wonder if there’s a meteorological basis for this or if it’s just an old wive’s tale?

October 11th – The fly agaric are fairly profuse in the usual places around Chasewater. I nipped out late morning, still a bit rough, so kept it short. I mentioned a few days ago that the white spots dropped off the fairytale fungus as they aged – and so they do. The top picture shows an eight-inch monster that’s aged and split under it’s own weight; it’s almost completely free of spots and is starting to fade. Interestingly, the other two examples are younger, and still fairly free of spots.

I love fungi. I could study it all day.

October 10th – A spin around Brownhills on a grey afternoon on errands and to get some air. I wasn’t feeling too well and the grey autumn day wasn’t helping my mood.

By my cyclic antidepressant worked, and a ride cheered me up. Nice views of the Common, and still, this late, flowers and colour.

Can I really face another winter? I guess so, but I really don’t fancy it this year.