June 30th – Spotted near Wednesbury, this lovely black cat that I’m sure a passing witch must have left behind. Prowling the perimeter of it’s territory, it peered at me cautiously before settling down to stare me out through the railings.

A lovely puss that clearly takes security duties very seriously indeed!

June 29th – Returning in steady, not unpleasant drizzle through Wednesbury, I spotted what once was a local wildflower rarity, on the grass verges round the Parkway Island subway system: Self-Heal.

This pretty little purple flower – it really is tiny, and easily mistaken for clover – is edible and a tradition salve for irritated skin. Spotted with fine rain, it was a beautiful and lovely find on a dull journey.

June 29th – A grey, wet afternoon in Tipton, and I noticed something I’ve passed maybe hundreds of times but not noticed: an odd little bit of civil engineering.

Just on the corner of Wood Street and Owen Road, effectively right on Tipton’s High Street, a circular bench feature, that’s actually concealing the top of a storm buffer.

A storm buffer is a large subterranean tank usually made from reinforced concrete pipe that acts to store rainwater surges in the event of a storm, buffering the deluge and releasing the water slowly into the drainage system at a manageable rate.

It’s unusual to see one proud of the ground, and even more so in such a prominent location.

That’s quite clever, and surprised I’ve never noticed it.

June 28th – One of the plants that’s commonly considered a nuisance and confined to edge lands and waste ground is rose bay willowherb, or old man’s beard.I’ve always felt the scorn for this violet midsummer trooper was unfair, as it’s another beautiful weed.

Fast growing with well-recognised wind-borne seeds, this tall plant is seen in hedgerows and other land that goes untended. It has a beautiful smell and adds a lovely purple tinge to otherwise dull spaces.

I’ll get you all looking at your weeds in a new light if it kills me…

June 28th – A miserable wet day, but thankfully, I mostly managed to avoid the worst of the rain. Although not great for me, it’ll be good to swell the rapidly growing fruits by the wayside.

How quickly we move to the fruiting phase of summer: Rowan berries, cherries, haws and all manner of delights are now developing steadily and beginning to ripen.

A genuine delight on a dreadful morning, but where the hell is summer slipping away to?

June 27th – Another beautiful weed is the thistle. There seems to be a very large variety of these spiny, prehistoric looking plants, and their strains seem endlessly complex – but whether a light mauve like these at Shire Oak Hill or a pink or deep, deep purple, they are all gorgeous and fascinating, particularly in the hostel-looking buds.

June 27th – Another grim, overcast day threatening rain but there is always brightness in a midsummer gloom – and here, it’s ragwort.

Another yellow weed that’s usually overlooked and indeed hated by horse owners, to whose animals it’s poisonous, this is actually a beautiful wayside flower that feeds bugs aplenty and keeps pollinators busy.

Many of what we would ordinarily class as weeds are very, very beautiful if we stop and look closely.

June 26th – the weather was grey and overcast on the way home and it had been raining, but I managed to just miss the showers. At Walsall Wood, momma mallard was inexplicably stewarding her new brood through a clump of water lilies. 

The ducklings, confused, were endlessly entertaining as they tried to stand on the foliage and invariably failed. Their mother seemed to be enjoying the spectacle and there seemed to be plenty of food in the clump too.

A lovely entertaining thing to see – and those waterlines are gorgeous.

June 26th – A brighter day and on the journey to work, a small mystery.

A huge pine cone, eaten by something, probably a squirrel, lying on the canal towpath near Pleck.

It was lying under an apple tree, with no pines or conifers in sight.

Perhaps the grey bushy-tailed fellows commute a long way these days. 

This year’s apple crop is looking healthy, though…

June 25th – I wasn’t expecting much when I headed to Chasewater; battling a strong wind and drizzle, the place was all but deserted and my circuit of the lake looked set to be dismal.

However, I was to be proven wrong; first of all I spotted a group of three red deer browsing the north heath contentedly, and they were happy for me to take pictures, even seeming to pose. But the real treat was waiting on the brow of the hill.

There was an adult female plucking greens from the trees, and after stopping to photograph her too, I noted she had another adult and two fawns with her. They progressed down to the marsh and loosely joined with the earlier three.

The antics of the fawns – never still for a moment – were lovely and the deer weren’t a bit shy or skittish. I watched them for a long time, even thought the rain was pretty steady.

However used to these gentle, beautiful beasts I become, I still can’t remove myself from the shock that we have them here, living on our green spaces. A wonderful, beautiful spectacle.