September 16th – On the way through Wednesfield, I met their swan family; mum, dad and six cygnets in rude heath. The young are as big as their parents and look well developed. 

Bickering and playfully pecking each other, they were clearly enjoying life and seemed like a happy, noisy family uint, clearly on a mission to the east, assisted by the wind.

A real delight.

September 17th – Unusually, I had to visit a supplier in Wolverhampton late in the afternoon. With a strong wind blowing from the west, it was a fun, easy ride home along the canal, which I picked up near Horseley Fields on the Ring Road. 

I notice 540 Degrees, the cat-loving street artist whose work I’ve spotted before has been to Wolverhampton. I know I shouldn’t, but I do like his work.

September 15th – With some damper weather, the fungus is coming on well, and few better places to spot it than the relatively undisturbed verges of industrial estates.`This venerable specimen was spotted in Wednesbury, and seems quite old, although it does appear to be growing. About the size of a small plate, it’s fascinating, and also a home for lots of bugs.

It looks like some kind of lactarius and was part of a fair-sized group.

September 15th – I had to visit Tipton of a hot, humid and hazy afternoon. The traffic was intense and the atmosphere oppressive and thick, but glancing over the canal bridge near Owen Street, the canal looked beautiful in the soft sunshine, and near a disused arm bridge, two young lads were fishing in a scene that couldn’t have changed much for decades.

The Black Country has a knack of showing its beauty when you least expect.

September 14th – This last few weeks I’ve been travelling home late a lot, and commuting in the dark. During these tired, weary evenings the rides have occasionally been very solitary, but one thing keeping me company has been the moon. Watching it wax and wane over successive fine nights has been a genuine joy, as has being observing the position every night.

This evening, with low cloud and mist on the ground, when the moon occasionally emerged, it had a lovely orange red hue.

It’s an odd friendship, me and the moon…

September 14th – I had to call in Birmingham after working late, and returned as dusk fell to Shenstone – and I was reminded one more how lovely this station is at night. 

The last Cross City Line station to retain it’s original charm, it wouldn’t look out of place any time in the last century. At this time of the evening, with the lights coming on and mist and autumn in the air, the sight of this wonderful station is welcoming, attractive and a genuine pleasure.

A great place to start or finish any rail journey.

September 13th – On the way home, I was travelling in the damp air and landscape just after heavy rainfall. Everything glittered, reflected and shone. Of the things rendered precious, few were more beautiful than the snowberries near the roadside in Pleck which looked pure and dappled with glinting raindrops.

Cycling after rain is a joy. Actually in the rain – not so much.

September 13th – One benefit of the shortening days is the comment colliding with sunrise and sunset. As I left for work early in the morning, the sky was so beautiful I decided to take the long way to work and travelled down through Stonewall and Mill Green just to catch it.

I wasn’t disappointed. 

There are some benefits to the closing summer, after all.

September 12th – A little local mystery solved, perhaps. This autumn, the Canada geese population have been very active indeed over Brownhills in the early morning and in the hour or so before sunset. Groups travelling en masse from one place to another, honking joyfully as they pass.

I love the noise they make and it always makes me smile. And there’s been a massive increase this year.

Returning home from work at dusk past Jockey Meadows where the crops had been harvested a week or so ago, I noted a huge flock of the birds, ground feeding on the spilled grain in the stubble. The birds were busily browsing, getting a good feed.

There must have been in excess of 500 birds.

My grandad used to call this otherwise lost seed ‘gleanings’ and traditionally, it was collected and used to feed fancy birds like guineafowl, who were therefore known as ‘gleanies’.

I assume the geese have been doing this for a few weeks as local cereal crops have been harvested – possibly an extra stop off on their normal journeys between daytime waters and night time roosting spots.

September 12th – The Autumn fruits are starting to come with abundance now, and few are more welcome than the bright reds and oranges of the rosehips. Where there were beautiful wayside flowers a few months ago, there are now gorgeous, shiny berries providing a feast for wildlife and a splash of welcome colour in the hedgerow.

The diversity of shapes and colours of these little-appreciated fruits is interesting, too.

Always a nice compensation for the ending of summer.