November 8th – My sombre mood was lifted on the way home by 13 red deer spotted loafing near Chasewater. The young stag seemed to have been fitted with antlers tuned for both DAB and FM, but he was a proud fellow. Sadly, the awful light prevented better photos but this healthy, relaxed herd was beautiful to see.

Just what I needed.

November 8th – Passing through Chasetown and Burntwood on a very wet, frizzy Remembrance Sunday afternoon, I was touched to note the memorial wreath and note on the SCAMP mining memorial to Jack Emery and the Terriers.

I also called in to the memorial in Chasetown Memorial Park, where the wind was doing its best to redistribute the wreaths around the grounds. I put them back and reflected on those who served.

Somehow, the grim weather seemed entirely appropriate.

November 7th – A day that started out miserably, with rain and heavy winds finished with a beautiful sunset that caught me just as I ran an errand into Lichfield.

From canal junction to road junction, from Minster Pool to Beacon Park, from the Chemical Hill to Hammerwich, everything was bathed in beautiful light.

Despite the wind, I was glad to witness this.

November 6th – I was crushingly tired as I trundled home with a thankfully assisting tailwind. It was wet again when I started out and I was damp and miserable. The traffic was hell, and sweeping off the ring road at Walsall, I looked westwards to an unexpectedly beautiful sky.

Cheered, I pressed on and noticed that at the Black Cock pub, their annual bonfire and fireworks display were starting, with stalls and a merry go round on the front car park. The lights looked so beautiful in the dark.

It’s been a hard few weeks. I’m tired, I’m grey and I need rest. Thank heavens it’s the weekend.

November 6th – As I’ve noted here before, I very much like Darlaston’s war memorial. Intimate, sombre and peaceful, it sits in its own sensory garden, a little oasis of calm in the middle of a Black Country town.

On this grey and foul morning, it cheered me as I passed, so I decided to record it for posterity.

I’ve never noticed the bench with the poppies on before. Wonder how that came about? It’s very beautiful.

November 5th – At Telford, two mysteries, one easily solved. On my journey I often pass a budget hotel, the rear of which is visible from the cycleway. On top of a cage surrounding what looks like air conditioning and refrigeration plant, a bicycle. It hasn’t moved for a year or more, or at least, it’s been there every day I’ve passed by. I’m wondering if anybody has actually noticed it from the hotel, or if it’s just a really secure locking space?

And then, the bike shed at the place I was visiting. Normally I have a job finding a space on sunny days. Today, only the hardcore mountain biker guy has rode in. And it looks like he got a wet arse doing so.

No mystery about fair-weather cyclists…

November 5th – Off to Telford, and another wet, warm commute. That wonderful autumn has come to a very soggy, miserable end. I stood on New Street watching the people, signals and trains as the drizzle softened the light. I must have spent hundreds of hours waiting here over the years. This station is in my blood like the traffic fumes and air of the city, and although I hate the state of it, and what’s been done to it, I still love the place.

I find as I get older my relationship with urban spaces is getting more and more complicated. These are still my places, but I feel much more ambivalent about them now. I’m not sure I like it.

November 4th – In the afternoon, I again passed by these fascinating berries I recorded last week. Thanks to the genius of Susan Marie Ward, I can tell you that they’re actually a type of crab apple.

Yes, you read that right. A gosh-darned crab apple.

Read about this fascinating shrub here. Nature is amazing sometimes.

Thanks to Susan for that.