August 23rd – Spinning out through the countryside, I noticed how many plants and trees are fruiting – rowan, oak and many I don’t recognise. The willow herb is seeding, too, and it’s easy to see why it has the colloquial name ‘old man’s beard’. It’s very hard to escape the fact that autumn is now on my heels. A sobering thought.

August 22nd – near the top of Mere Hill overlooking the Manifold Valley near Calton in the Peak District stands this old, redundant stone gatepost. Initially, its survival long after the field boundary it marked was removed is puzzling, until one notices the Ordnance Survey surveyor’s benchmark carved into it. This is the usual explanation for any such stone posts, and the majority are no longer used, but it does make a fine cattle scratching-post.

August 22nd – Off into the Peak District for the day on a long ride. It’s sometimes said that the best bits of Derbyshire are in Staffordhire, and Ilam is no exception. The border between the two counties runs down the river at Dovedale, and everything to the west is in Staffordshire, including this picturesque little village at the foot of the Manifold Valley. Superb architecturally, the village monument has just been refurbished. 

More pictures from this ride are on my main blog.

August 21st – To my surprise, the cereal harvest – thanks to largely dry weather – is almost over around Stonnall and Lichfield. Most of the oilseed rape seems to have been cut, too, and fields are now turning back, first to stubble and bales, then bare earth ready for replanting. I don’t think I’ve known a recent year when the process has been done and dusted so quickly. Last year in this field at Springhill, rapeseed was grown, this year, wheat. Wonder what the next crop will be?

August 21st – Other people’s bikes. In Lichfield for an early meeting, I took lunch and cycled home after a mooch around town. The town – despite the arrival of Debenhams – still seems to have a lot of empty retail space, and many of the shops I used to pass time in have now gone – the bookshop, Jessops, the Sony Centre. It’s quite sad.

Different from Brum, there’s more of a utility cycling vibe in Lichfield than the big city. I see a lot of older folk on Pashleys or cheaper imitations, and there are many odd hybrids of multiple flavours. I noted this great trike – is that a saddle or a sofa? I took an interest in the Dawes Streetwise – an odd mongrel design of a bike. Partially lugged, part welded frame, roller hub brake on the rear, V-brake on the front. Nexus hub gears. They are heavy, basic city commuter bikes – but this one is clearly loved and very well used.

Most of the bike space around the retail areas was full. This is impressive.

August 20th – another fruit that’s set to be in abundance this autumn are haws, the berries of the hawthorn. Bright red, bitter and woody, they’re not toxic and can make decent jams and wines; but to me, their primary purpose is to provide sustenance for the birds, who flock for their goodness in winter. At the moment, these copious tiny berries are orange-green, and these fine examples were spotted in the hedgerow at Green Lane.

Enough sun and they’ll be pillar-box red, another fine sight and indicator of the passing year.

August 20th – pleasing to see that the new bike racks that sprang up throughout Birmingham city centre in advance of the tunnel closures are being well used. Wandering down to New Street after doing a little evening shopping, I noticed this new facility was almost at capacity, even at 5pm. Interesting variety of bikes, too. That fixie with no brakes looks like a fun ride…

August 19th – The oaks are faring better this year for acorns. Last year, the crop here by the canal at Clayhanger, and over on Brownhills Common, was ravaged by knopper galls, which turn the oak fruit into odd-shaped aberrations that are home to the larvae of a tiny wasp. Thankfully, I could only see a handful of such curiously distorted acorns on this tree, which had a healthy looking crop of normal fruit maturing nicely.

What the tree was suffering, though, is unknown but fascinating. Leaves had inverted, and the undersides were covered with an annular ring, clearly left by fungi or some insect or other. They look like tiny breakfast cereal pieces, but are obviously killing the foliage.

Do any passing arborialists know what they are, please?

August 19th – Thanks to friend of the blog Rosa Maria Burnell, I can reveal that Brownhills has developed a second pop-up bench. Again, secondhand, it’s appeared at the junction between Silver Street and the Miner Island. It’s not a picturesque spot, but Rose reports it was being well-used. 

I have nothing against such street furniture, but I’m curious as to who’s erecting them, from where, and why.

August 18th – I passed through West Hill in Cannock on the way to Pye Green. I always come this way if I’m heading to the west of the Chase, but the hills are punishing. Today, I stopped to take a drink and noticed West Hill Primary School. What a fine bit of Victorian, municipal architecture it is. Huge windows, fantastically detailed in execution, the brickwork around the gables and eaves is a joy to behold, as are the decorative ironwork – just look at the floral finials. Good job they chose regular numbers and not Roman for the date inscription, that gable would have to have been a lot wider…

Then, as I moved on a little, I spotted what must have been the original school house; plainer, simpler, but again with lovely arched end windows and imposing chimneys. 

This is a fine school indeed.