September 23rd – Returning through Lichfield, Festival Gardens looked gorgeous too with the autumn thing going on. Although I feel cheated out of the expected Indian summer, I’m really enjoying the Autumn colour this year.
And there are few better places to admire it than the parks and streets of Lichfield.
September 23rd – A visit to the sadly biannual rather than annual Canal Heritage Gathering at Huddlesford, near Tamworth.
Despite suffering with a heavy cold, it was a lovely day and I met some truly wonderful people, stuffed my face with tea, cake and other grub, mooned over beautiful boats and cars and had fun.
This is a fantastic event run well and I wish it was annual. You can find out more with a large gallery on my main blog here.
September 22nd – It was a long day. From Cradley, I had to drive to Derbyshire and back, and by the time I rode home at unset, I was tired and irritable and not feeling well. It seemed I had it with a cold.
Riding down Green Lane from Walsall, the sunlight caught the turning leaves and made them precious. Not too far from home, sunlight after a grim day, and the promise of good food, a brew and the comfort of family.
The lane and light called me on.
September 22nd – Unusually, I had to visit Cradley on a work errand. I used to spend a huge amount of time in this busy little town, but haven’t been to visit in nearly a decade.
It changed, without me, as places do. Some familiar things remained – some shops, landmarks, factories – but there’s a shiny new bus station, lots of redevelopment an an interesting memorial to Mary MacArthur the trade unionist who fought so famously here.
The statues is by the same artist who made the Walsall Wood ones, and whilst the thought is there, it’s no Morris and it looks like money for old chain, if not rope. Oh well.
The High Street is suffering like they all are, but retains it’s quirkiness and frenetic air of business.
Around the corner, in Wood Lane, Griffin and Woodhouse still make chain to moor the world – some of it huge.
It felt sad to be back in a place I once haunted but now don’t really know at all well. Time moves on, with or without us.
September 21st – As I neared Brownhills, a beautiful violet-red sunset formed over Jockey Meadows and Clayhanger.
The sky and low cloud mad the whole thing etereal and ghostly, and the dying light made all rosy and soft.
I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.
September 21st – Returning home after a long day through north Walsall I caught a gorgeous, soft golden hour.
We are in the season of great sunsets and tonight, this was just a warm up for better to come.
There are positive aspects to autumn, you just have to be open to them.
September 20th – The conker (or horse chestnut to be formal for non-UK readers) harvest this year is ample, which is excellent to see considering so many of these marvellous, noble trees are having their foliage ravaged by leaf miners and cankers.
Here at Darlaston, the nuts are so copious, even though the kids gather around, there are loads of them left on the verge, a bounty I could only ever dream of as a kid.
I’ve said it many times but I do think there’s a real primitive instinct with British men and conkers. We’re programmed to collect and admire them from an early age.
September 20th – A good fungal find near conifers by the canal in Clayhanger – Sticky Bun fungus, sometimes known as Sticky Jack. When damp, this large toadstool looks slimy and unpleasant, but as a boletus it’s edible (but to avoid a bad tummy remove the slime layer before preparation), and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it here before.
Were it not sprouting from formerly contaminated land I’d certainly be picking a few for a fry up…
September 19th – I had to visit Telford and when I arrived late morning it was still quite misty with a soft, suffused sunlight. The cycleways and views of the new town are beautiful at this time of year in the right light and it’s one of the good things about autumn.
So nice to see a familiar place wearing such a pretty jacket, even if it does mean the end of the green for another year…
September 19th n- One of the odder fruits of the autumn is the snowberry. Serving only as bird food, this ornamental shrub, like firethorn, is often used for ornamentation in public parks, edge lands, industrial estate landscaping and so on.
As far as I can tell, the birds seem to like the white berries that make a distinctive popping sound when stepped on or thrown hard at the floor, and the bees certainly like the pink and white flowers, still very much in evidence on the same shrubs as the large, healthy-looking fruit.
Snowberry will grow with little attention needed and does look pretty, especially when dappled by dew, as these examples in the centre of Darlaston attest.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 