BrownhillsBob

#365daysofbiking Waxcap waning

October 12th – A pretty little ‘shroom spotted in the leaf litter under those trees on The Parade: The blackening wax cap or witches hat. Starting light in colour they can be anything from yellow to deep red. As they age they get darker and darker until the point of decay.

Not particularly toxic but not really edible, the wax cap is a diverse family that are absolutely beautiful and well worth looking out for.

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#365daysofbiking Things in common

October 12th – Little sleep, online life getting to me and feeling tired. Not a great recipe – but a potter into town for shopping and a coffee was welcome. I headed to The Parade which is always beautiful in autumn, and although too early for the real show, it was still pretty impressive and a good tonic.

I remember this majestic trees being saplings. They are pretty much as old as I am.

And today, I felt very old indeed… Certainly too old to be working into the wee small hours.

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#365daysofbiking Back to black

October 11th – Although technically the next day, it was still my working Friday when I rode back home in a soaking wet, somnambulant landscape in the small hours of the morning.

I didn’t;t trust the few cars that were about, speeding around, so stuck to the canal where the only things around were roosting waterfowl and the odd, dejected and bedraggled fox.

I was tired and mentally dead.

Ah well, it’s the weekend…

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#365daysofbiking Lily was here

October 11th – On the way to work on the canal Walsall Wood, I noticed something one doesn’t normally see until early spring: This floating root, probably disturbed by Canal and River Trust efforts to remove the floating algae, is a rhizome of the water lilies that are so profuse here.

This remnant of the summer plant generally sinks to the canal bottom during winter, and when the water warms in spring, it becomes buoyant, floats with other detritus and then takes root, and when rooted, will grow that season’s lilies.

It’s a curious mechanism that actually works very efficiently.

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#365daysofbiking Wet and dark the night

October 10th – A long day and late night at work. The journey home was dreadful, and reminded me that I among enduring The Suck, that horrible period of night-time commuting in the dark, when driving seems worse, the weather is hostile and the journeys drain you physically and psychologically.

Still, to have the gorgeous sunny summer days you need to have the winter, and even Walsall Ring Road can be surprisingly attractive when the wet tarmac, vehicle and street lights combine.

Roll on Christmas…

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#365daysofbiking Fleeting visitors

October 9th – The fungus is really coming on now, I’m pleased to see a whole variety of mushrooms, balls, slime, mildew and brackets, some plain and some strikingly colourful.

Every day is a new discovery, and is one of the nicer aspects of autumn. These tiny parasols were growing on a grass verge in Chasetown, and although plain now, will be very striking when fully grown.

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#365daysofbiking Clear water rising

October 9th – A rare journey to Chasetown in the morning saw me crossing Chasewater on a decent morning.

I noticed at the Nine Foot that the water level, thanks to recent rains, is now less than 200mm off full. It’s been a coupe of years since the reservoir was this full.

I don’t know why but I always get a childish thrill from seeing the water flow down the spillway.

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#365daysofbiking Harsh, still

October 8th – Despite a flurry of updates, the generally lauded night mode on the new iPhone is very impressive but to me, still somewhat harsh.

On one of my favourite night subjects – Clayhanger Bridge – the image is impressive for a phone, but I think a real camera generally does it better, even with this incompetent behind it.

Maybe I’m being harsh myself…

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#365daysofbiking The storm’s passage

October 8th – Returning from Birmingham, caught suddenly in a shower on the platform at New Street Station, I was fascinated by the darkening of the sky, then the light catching the buildings as the end was in sight.

In all the mad, frenetic urban landscape, I love the power it still maintains to capture the light beautifully.

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#365daysofbiking Circling the drain

October 7th -This is one for the collection of things that randomly irritate me. It’s not a huge thing, but it’s been bothering me a while now – several years in fact.

A the place I visit in Telford, facilities have been told to paint arrows indicating direction of flow on manhole covers. Which is a great idea. In theory.

Until you do it on a round cover. Which isn’t keyed. And can be put back in any orientation.

Some of the triangular arrows are also equilateral, and central.

It irritates me every time I notice it, and they’ve just repainted all the arrows…

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