August 25th – Although it was a grey, miserable morning, the canal near Bentley Bridge still looked awesome. It’s still very lush and green, in spite of the merciless mowing of the towpath. Today I noted snowberries were coming on to fruit, and the ragwort is still going well.
A little brightness is always nice on dull days. The kingfishers remain elusive…
August 25th – The land at the bottom of Bentley Mill Way, wedged in behind the houses on the Darlaston Road, the motorway and canal has been vacant and derelict a very long time, in fact as long as I can remember. Blighted by former shallow mining, and probably contaminated, this is scarred industrial wasteland that also has the River Tame flowing through it.
Since last year, work has been taking place on upgrading the adjacent Bentley Mill Way for a new improved road system, loftily touted to ‘improve development potential’.
In all the regeneration-bullshit that’s ebbed and flowed, there has been talk of reclaiming this land and building on it, and architect’s drawings of a particularly odd building have been circulated.
Someone has clearly been enticed here, as fresh boreholes have been drilled in the last week; those coloured pipes with locked caps are sleeved bores for surveying purposes.
Whilst the wasteland green is pretty in the summer, it would be nice to see building here. Let’s hope something happens soon.
August 24th – A remarkable sunset struck when I was travelling around on errands, and I couldn’t get in a good place to photograph it, so I let the trees in on the glory.
Beautiful. Very little sun in the days, but the sundowns are gorgeous.
August 24th – Fruits of all kinds from berries, to nuts to pears. All in a short section of canal from Clayhanger to Brownhills on a dull, airless journey home. Nature is bountiful at the moment, and I was pleased to find the untouched windfall hazels, as here don’t seem to be many around this year. I note also the pears did quite well at Clayhanger, and the blackberries are delivering a huge crop this year.
It’s feeling a lot like autumn now.
August 23rd – On my way to a friend’s house in the evening, I shot through Walsall Wood, and as I came over the canal bridge looking towards Walsall, something about the lights, the sunset sky and that window showroom caught my eye.
An odd splash of colour. It was actually raining lightly as I took these photos.
August 23rd – Caught in heavy rains at Cannock Chase, I headed for the nearest shelter which happened to be the cafe, Springslade Lodge. Awful phone photos, but I was struck by the effort the staff had put into dressing the garden with plastic tablecloths, flower vases and such, for no customers to be able to use it.
Oddly beautiful and a little sad.
August 22nd – A day of unexpected jobs and delayed activity, I finally got out at dusk and span on an errand to Burntwood, so naturally, despite the oncoming storm, I headed up through Chasewater.
The skies were dramatic, but I failed to capture them well, and whilst there were flashes of lightning and the odd rumble of thunder, despite riding back in steady, warm, refreshing rain, the foreboding, brooding skies failed to deliver.
But it was actually a lovely ride.
August 21st – It was a grey, damp Friday afternoon, and it felt more like October than August, and after a few grey, wet days I noticed the little meadow near the new pond at Clayhanger had lost all of it’s summer colour suddenly, like switching off a light.
All was not lost, though, as there are still wildflowers nearby – toadflax and honeysuckle are still showing well, and damsons and apples are adding autumn colour. Even a confused lupin was bright in the gloom.
Autumn can wait just a little while, can’t it?
August 21st – I had stuff to do in Aldridge on the way home, and Northgate was solid with traffic, so I cut down past the back of the Vigo landfill to hop on the canal at Brickyard Road. I noticed that the final work seems to be going on with sealing this immense refuse tip. It was capped with a top layer of marl a while ago, and landfill gas is still being abstracted and used to power a large generating set, supplying power to the national grid; but amongst the bulkheads and snaking pipes, a plastic membrane has been laid and it’s being covered in topsoil, prior to final landscaping.
The membrane prevents rainwater from getting through the cap and soaking through the refuse, where it would be extracted and disposed of as a toxic brew called leachate, which is an ongoing, expensive operation.
Reducing leachate production also lowers the future chances of groundwater pollution.
Landfill is quite a high-tech operation these days, if carried out properly.
August 20th – had o nip on an errand, and left during daylight, and returned at dusk. On both outward and return, I crossed the old cement works bridge.
I took a photo towards Pelsall on my way out, and a photo towards Brownhills on my way back.
I don’t know why, but I’m fascinated by the change in light and atmosphere.
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