October 12th – I don’t think I’ve ever known a season where the wildflowers bloom for so long. It’s now mid October, and in the urban heart of Walsall on the canal at Pleck, there are beautiful flowers  still.

Still attracting bugs, these are gorgeous and brightened an otherwise dull journey to work.

October 11th – Crossing the Shire Oak Junction and heading down to Brownhills at dusk is a sadder experience of late.

The Shire Oak Pub – recently refurbished at no little cost – closed some weeks ago following poor public reception and has yet, despite assurances of people who apparently knew what was going on, to reopen, and stands in total darkness.

The lights of this landmark used to shine out in the darkness and often be like a welcome as I crested the last hill into Brownhills form a day at work, or long ride out. Not any more.

Let’s hope it reopens soon. It could be a great house.

October 11th – Oh boy. Not more that a few days ago, I was bemoaning the lack of decent fungus this year, and was stunned to find a sing fly agaric toadstool in the usual spot near Chasewater, then this.

I was shotting along the canal through Pleck of all places, and as I rode a red flash on top of the canal cutting embankment caught my eye. Scrambling up there to investigate, I saw found one of the best crops of these cute red and white spotted fungi I’ve ever seen.

Large, profuse and very beautiful, these are in the heart of formerly industrial, urban Walsall, in a place few humans would ever think to go. A really wonderful find.

October 10th – Another abundant crop is the sweet chestnuts on the tree at the bottom of Main Street, Stonnall, which are now ripe and falling to the ground. This is always a productive tree, and the soft, downy insides of the husks contrast with the intensely spiky, hostile exterior, but it does look oh so cosy to be a sweet chestnut. 

As usual, the nuts are not big enough to eat, as the fruit doesn’t grow well in the British climate, but the tree is stunning and an interesting, handsome curiosity.

October 11th – Coming back from Shenstone, I remembered the field of carrots I’d spotted earlier in the year. I checked out the crop, and saw the lush green foliage was still apparently in rude health.

Unable to resist a look at the product of the season, I uprooted a few and found them to be a curious short but fat strain of carrot, but they looked healthy and tasty, with a lovely colour.

It’s not often you see carrots growing around here; last time was at the top of Lazy Hill a couple of years ago.

October 9th – Up on Cannock Chase, I noted that tree felling had been underway at Berry Hill, leaving the landscape more open and naked than I’d ever seen it here.

People who know the Chase appreciate that like farmland, this is a factory floor, and that the wood grown here is commercially valuable and the reason the forest exists. So the felling doesn’t concern me.

The cut trunks in neat stacks were fascinating and smelled beautiful, and counting the rings, I was surprised to note some of these trees were over fifty years old.

All part of the cycle of a commercial forest.

October 9th – A late afternoon ride up to Cannock Chase, and like the day before, disappointing as fine weather had been promised, which wasn’t forthcoming when I was out and about – it was yet another grey day.

Brightness, however was evident in the first fly agaric toadstool of the season I found on the canal bank near Wharf Lane in Brownhills. This was a perfect young specimen, bright red and round with lots of white spots. As I took photos, I felt myself being watched.

Stripes, observing me curiously from some decking on the opposite bank could see what I was up to – but wasn’t impressed at all.

That’s one lovely cat.

October 8th – I looked hard for inspiration in the grey gloom of late afternoon, and found nothing, and darkness had fallen before I found anything that interested me. Hopping on the canal at Walsall Wood, I headed for Brownhills via Catshill Junction. The stillness of the canal in the dark was as beautiful as it ever was.

When the nights close in, it can be hard to find decent photos for a while as you shift expectations of what makes a decent image. There is no longer the abundance of plants and wildlife in good light, and the sunshine that makes even the plainest view special is far more sparing in it’s attention; but in the night shot there is a whole range from quiet, lonely peace to the bright chaos of a city centre rush hour.

It just takes time to adjust to the darkness again.

October 8th – Unusually, I’d had to go into Walsall and on to Wednesbury on a Saturday. The thoroughly uninspiring, grey afternoon was sad, as the forecast had been quite good. It was a good ride though, and I got lots of stuff done. Retuning at dusk, I span through the ‘Civic Quarter’ of Walsall , and stopped to look up Tower Street.

The Council House and it’s belcote are still impressive, but I dislike the striped paving and excessive street furniture here immensely – and the blue lights on the Gala Baths don’t help; but this was a quiet, pleasant place to reflect on the unexpected beauty of Walsall and what wonderful, clashing influences make up it’s urban core.

October 7th – I’m fascinated by the way the scrub on Clayhanger Common has formed into a tunnel over the footpath behind the overflow at Clayhanger Bridge. This footpath is used enough to be fairly well worn, and the creepers, brambles and scrub have turned the track into a foliage arch which is quite charming and could, for all the world, be a portal to some kind of wonderful netherworld.