Tag: autumn

October 4th – This is a great Autumn for fungi – everywhere I look there seem to be great examples of different species, and stuff I haven’t seen before.

This interesting clump of button toadstools is growing on the exposed, fractured roots of the spot where a tree fell near the Tannery flats in Walsall. I think it may be some kind of honey fungus, but I’m really not sure. It’s really colourful and the photo doesn’t do it justice.

I suppose this is the tradeoff for the damp, grey autumn – great toadstools!

October 2nd – And then, still chasing my delivery notes, another wonder I’ve not spotted before: an apple tree growing beautiful, edible looking apples just out of reach on scrub between two factory yards.

Birds are loving the fruit, which are ripe now and falling to the ground untouched. They looked beautiful against the blue sky with the turning leaves like that.

Wonder if they’re as tasty as they look? They’re quite large.

October 1st – In and around Hints church, the fungi is booming; most of these examples were spotted in God’s Acre itself, with some remarkable specimens growing undisturbed amongst the gravestones and memorials. I spent a happy half hour there, just seeing what I could find, all the time with the feeling I was being watched closely. 

Then the reason for my feeling of paranoia became clear – I was being watched by an elegant, snooty siamese cat from the edge of the graveyard!

October 1st – With autumn really bearing down on me now, no choice but to embrace it. I went out on a really very grey afternoon with a strong wind and a heavy heart. I went to visit a new cafe I’d found, and despite arriving well within stated opening hours, they were no longer serving.

Some businesses confound me.

Heading out to Canwell and Hints though, the season was setting the hedgerows and trees ablaze, the scenery was fighting to show it’s beauty through the gloom and it was hard to be down.

So I just rode on and really, really enjoyed it.

September 26th – ne of the rewards of autumn is the abundant crop of interesting fungi. Passing Clayhanger Common in darkness, I noted that some environmental trigger – damp, temperature, never sure what – has called on the glistening ink caps and they are everywhere.

They start as perfect little ridged caps, delicate and speckled with crystals. They age very quickly, and within 48 hours they open and decay into a black goo, hence the name ‘ink cap’ – and another 12 hours, and you’re hard pressed to find any trace they existed.

Fungi are fascinating.

September 25th – The day did have some things to commend it though, As dusk fell a mist was rising off the canal at Clayhnager bridge and in it’s dark way, it looked serene and beautiful.

I’m not really ready for winter but there’s nothing I can do about it now, so I guess I must find beauty where I can.

September 25th – Heading home on a grey day, there was little to inspire, but whilst admiring the colours in the scrub near the new pond in Clayhanger, wishing we had sunshine to set them afire, I noticed a cat there I’d not seen before, presumably a ways away from home. A lovely ginger tabby, it gave me one glance, then high tailed it back down the old rail line path.

Even the cats didn’t want to speak to me…

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.