October 1st – We’re in the season of great sunsets. These, taken from around the Handsacre area, feature my favourite obsession – Rugeley Power Station. I love a good sunset, and they’re taken by putting the camera on timer release and standing it on gateposts and bridge rails. Plenty more in the coming weeks, hopefully.
October 1st – I’m really enjoying Cannock Chase right now. Exploring again Brockton and the Sherbrook Valley, I found Freda’s Grave, the memorial to the mascot of the New Zealand Rifles, stationed at Brocton during the first world war. I also crossed Shugborough again, but this time I headed up through Hixon to Blithfield and back through Handsacre. This indian summer has been a great tonic and I savoured every minute.
September 30th – hot and bothered from a day in the crowds of Birmingham, I escaped in the early evening and took a spin over Castlehill. Ducking through a hedge at the summit into a field of carrots, the view of South Staffordshire was hazy, autumnal and gorgeous. You can knock our area in all manner of ways, but be honest, this is a cracking view over a rolling, historic, beautifully rural landscape. What’s not to love? Open your eyes, folks…
September 30th – Today, I visited the annual cycle show, this year held at the NEC, Birmingham. There’s a writeup and a Flickr gallery on my main blog, but I’d just like to point out that to outsiders, cycling is a uniform thing. You get on a bike, you ride it. There’s actually a who ecosystem of subcultures going on in the cycling world – from utility cyclists managing family life and crying kids in safety, to the recumbent guys and their fascinating, specialist machines. That’s why I love the cycle show, it opens your eyes to different possibilities. The show is open until Sunday evening.
September 29th – I’ve been passing this odd little feature for years without realising what it was, only learning of it’s true nature a year ago. The ‘park’ – such as it is – lies in the triangle of the junction where Farewell Lane meets Church Road in Burntwood, just by the parish church. Who’d have thought such a small, railing enclosed verge could be classed as a park? It’s a lovely thing, but I wonder which tree is which?
September 29th – A gorgeous indian summer day. I escaped to the Chase for the third time in a week, and explored again the area around Brocton and into the Sherbrook Valley. I made a half-hearted attempt to find Freda’s Grave, which is near there, but I didn’t have it marked on my map and was ultimately unsuccessful, but I’ll return another day. Freda was an army mascot for a regiment stationed on the chase, and a commemorative stone was laid in her honour.
What I did find, however, was an astounding array of fungi sprouting up. Blumels, puffballs, chicken of the woods. This most peculiar autumn is well into it’s stride, but I think the sun has yet to get the message, thankfully.
September 28th – I noticed near Lower Stonnall this huge stack of hay bales being covered for storage. This time of year is all about putting stuff behind for the famers; silage is gently maturing in yards, potatoes lie ready in the earth, their foliage having been removed. Sugarbeet, manglewurzels and turnips are maturing. Huge stacks of bales like this dot the countryside. Last year, there was a shortage of winter food for livestock. I’m sure farmers this year are keen to avoid any repeat.
September 28th – The light was incredible today. On my way to work it was hazy and misty, and the sunlight was softened by the season. On my return, the golden hour was equally mesmerising – the lanes of Stonnall were bathed in long shadows and everything seemed to take on a rich, golden hue. I’m loving this burst of indian summer. It seems to be accelerating the autumn, the laves are shedding quickly now, and under horse chestnut trees and oaks the ground is littered with fruit. Yet again, I’m feeling the seasons’ change breathing down my neck.
September 26th – The crews working on the overhead electricity line running over Mill Green seem to be wrapping up now – the scaffold support towers have been dismantled, and the warning signs have gone from the lanes of the area. There is still the odd vehicle parked near pylons in fields and gateways, however, as stuff is collected and tested. On my way to work this morning I spotted this hank of cable in a field gateway near Little Aston, and resolved to photograph it when I came home. I wondered why such a huge quantity of wire had not been stolen for scrap… then I checked it out. It’s not electrical wire, but multicored fibre optic cable. I hadn’t noticed before, but this seems to be wound around the bonding wires – the very top ones – between towers on the transmission line. Routing such cables in this way must be a good earner for the operators of the National Grid, as they can carry huge amounts of data, and the route is very direct without the hassle of digging. Genius.
September 26th – The indian summer continues in all it’s glorious warmth. Out in Redditch today, I noticed commuters once again in summer clothes and everything seemed a might more relaxed than in the previous couple of weeks. This is surely the last gasp of summer for this year, and the quality of light at eveningtide as I passed through Little Aston was incredible. Here at the entrance to the private hospital, the low sun made for a haunting, golden scene.
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