September 26th – There’s still a bountiful crop of elderberries for the taking out in the hedgerows, thickets and copses of the area. I spent a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon getting very red fingers collecting for a family winemaker.

Elderberries make a gorgeously dark, potent wine that in the the hands of a skilled winemaker can be way better than any shop-bought red wine.

One of the benefits of autumn!

September 26th – On my way home in the road in the backstreets of Walsall, I spotted these large acorns in unusually hairy cups. Not having seen the like before, I assumed there were some kind f insect gall.

Looking it up when I got home, these are actually the acorns f a turkey oak, and quite normal for the species. I’ve never seen them before, and they’re quite alien after the familiar gnarled, knobbly normal acorn cup one usually sees.

An interesting oddity.

September 25th – I spotted this handsome cat loafing in a field of stubble at Hademore,near Whittington. He was some way away, and the camera brought him nearer. His antics were fascinating; one moment he was hunting, on point, then having a scratch, then dozing.

I watched him for ages – a lovely cat clearly enjoying his territory. `I think he was every bit a star and someone must love this puss very much.

September 25th – A windy, wolfish day with lots of sun and a few showers. Riding wasn’t so great – I was still short of energy, but on the other hand it was beautiful to see the rainbow form over Hammerwich just after the rain passed through.

It’s been ages since I saw one this vivid.

dry-valleys:

At Sutton Common, a Cold War communication tower, following the lead of Jeff Kent, a legendary local authhor whose guides to hills in Staffordshire  and Cheshire have launched me on so many walks. This is my first-ever visit to Sutton Common and Croker Hill, on which it sits.

Croker Hill is an older sibling to Bosley Cloud- (2) is the Cloud from Bosley Reservoir, start of my walk, (3) is the summit of Bosley Cloud in September, (4) is Sutton Common from Bosley Cloud- you can just about see it behindd me- and (5) is Bosley Cloud from Sutton Common. Also visible are (9) Jodrell Bank and (10) Shutlingsloe. 

In Jeff’s opinion, Sutton Common “blights the landscape for a long distance around” but I disagree, I love (this may be a male thing)  “collecting” communication towers, and after my visit to Fen Park last month I’m definitely pressing on to Pye Green, which I’ve never visited.

September 24th – Heading for Chasewater from Brownhills along the canal, my recovery ride was slow and plodding, but if it had not been, I might not have looked right down the Spot Path on Clayhanger Common and seen the old dog fox annoyed at my disturbing his duck hunting activities.

One ear flat in irritation and an expression of utter contempt, that fox never changes and we’re old familiars. 

Rare to be able to catch a photo – despite his age he’s nimble and still quick on his feet.

September 23rd – At Calton, high in the Weaver Hills, I was surprised to find a tree with a huge crop of ripe plums, so ripe that they were falling off the tree and rotting on the ground, food only for birds and a huge army of wasps.

A taste of one of the purple fruit told me why they were untouched – so tart my face nearly turned inside out.

This was no deterrent to the wasps, however, who were too busy to bother the inquisitive human with the camera.

September 23rd – A chance day off and escape into the Staffordshire Moorlands. I rode the reverse of a ride I did in spring, leaving at dawn and riding up through Rugeley and Uttoxeter, then over to Marston Montgomery, Snelston and Ellastone, over the Weaver Hills and Waterhouses, up Morridge to Flash, then back through Danebridge and Rushton Spencer to Congleton, where I picked up a train back to Lichfield.

Passing Morning Star, the steam roller from Klondike Mill at Uttoxetter was a rare treat.

It was a long ride, over a century, and the climbing was hard and prolonged. There was a good but chilly following wind, but when the sun shone it was warm and lovely.

What a joy to catch summer’s last breath in such beautiful scenery.

September 22nd – Also coming out better than expected was Morris, the Brownhills Miner. I often have people grumbling I don’t feature him here often enough, but it’s hard to know what to do with him; Morris has been photographed so often and so well by others, my photos would jut be noise.

I’m very fond of Morris – as a technical achievement, he’s stunning and a wonderful demonstration of Finite Element boundary analysis as a method of solving complex shape resolution. But he’s also that rarity – a civic artwork with soul.

Morris has done very little for Brownhiills. He hasn’t ‘put is on the map’ – we never left it; he hasn’t created jobs or sparked a regeneration.

But what Morris has done is made lots of people smile, and wonder about the history he represents.

Which is worth an awful lot in my book.