October 5th – One of the best things about autumn is the sudden and prolific emergence of the mycology.  Yesterday, there was nothing of note on this twenty-metre long, 1 meter wide grass edge in Telford. Today, after a cold, damp night, two different types of puffballs, tricholoma,, field mushrooms and tough-shanks variously peppered the damp grass. What isn’t often appreciated about these curious fungi is that they aren’t separate organisms; the surface growth is merely a bloom for a surface, or subsurface organism. How cool is that?

October 4th – I was accompanied by a forgotten companion on my return from work this evening – nightfall. It was 6:45pm, and nearly dark when I arrived home. A little bit of a shock to the system. This made photography difficult, as I hadn’t got a tripod or gorillapod on me. Sweeping down a dark and deserted Maybrook Road, the dusk made for an interesting shot with the camera sat on a street cabinet. This part of town – on the Walsall Wood/Brownhills border – always seems deserted. Even in the daytime.

October 4th – Telford Railway Station is a wreck right now, and has been for some time. I’ve always disliked it – not unpleasant in the daytime, with easy ramp access, but at night in winter it’s cold, lonely and desolate. I still wince at memories of waiting for late trains here in the freezing, snowy run up to Christmas 2010. The whole site was due a refurb, but half way through, the builders who won the contract went bust. Allegedly now restarted, I’ve yet to see anyone on site actually doing anything. A disgrace.

October 3rd – The mystery of the bean field is solved. As I cycled past this evening, the farmer was harvesting the crop of beans I considered last week to be lost. I’d been musing on exactly how they were harvested for a while, and it seems the technique is identical to how much local maize is harvested: the whole plant is mown off at about six inches above ground, then chopped into rough chunks by the machinery, where presumably, it’s loaded into a trailer. I’d assume the beans a therefore used as fodder.

That’s a very big machine. Impressive stuff, and a mystery no more.

October 3rd – Out to Telford at dawn meant cycling to Shenstone Station. The weather has been really variable this week, the one constant factor being the northeasterly wind that’s blown me to Shenstone in the morning and home from Walsall at night. Just as this is the time of year for good sunsets, it’s also the time for decent sunrises, too, although I’m usually too rushed to photograph them. Today was a good example – a gorgeous sky heralding a temperate day. Coupled with the shinbone skyline, it was beautiful.

October 2nd – The condition of the Black Cock Bridge in Walsall Wood seems to be deteriorating, but I’m not sure who’s responsible. This steep sided, notorious canal crossing is over a century old, and is made of brick and iron. The guard rails are wooden, and bolted on to angle-iron posts, which have now corroded away causing the guard rails to fall off. For a month or so now, someone has erected and re-erected orange webbing fencing to cover the hazard, but they’ve been so idle about the task that rather than cut the excess off, they rolled it up and stuffed the remainder in a gap. It regularly falls out and flaps in the road.
I hope someone, somewhere is planning a more permanent repair. 

October 2nd – Sadly, the optimism of the previous day had evaporated with the good weather, and it was back to the damp and grey. Something, though, has caused a step-change; somebody has flicked the ‘on’ switch for the leaf fall. Mainly sycamores at the moment, but trees all over are turning colour, and shedding. For a while, everything will be golden. The best bit of autumn. Here in Telford, the cycleways are beautiful, if a little bit treacherous, as the foliage sheds.

October 1st – October? How did that happen so quick? After the grimness of the day before, the bright morning was a joy. For the first time in a while I was in Telford, and the rose hips on the cycleway beside the M54 are beautiful. Rosehips can be used for so much stuff – wine, jelly, syrup – but few seem to pick them. Sad, because it’s been a great year for the roses.
There are a whole host of fruits here, from blackberries to dewberries, crab apples, medlars, rowan berries, catoniasters and even nightshade seem to be showing well. Autumn is also coming on here fast, more of which later in the week.