October 7th – The Autumn isn’t bad at all, although the cold is starting to creep in now. It was a gorgeous golden hour on the canal as I came home past Clayhanger Bridge.
The trees haven’t yet began to turn but the sun, on days like these, turns the ageing greens golden every evening.
October 5th – Of all the flowers hanging on in this odd autumn, the butter and eggs is one of my favourites. It’s still flowering well along the hedgerows and towpaths of Walsall Wood and Brownhills, and this example was spotted near Walsall Wood Bridge.
It’s getting colder now, though, and it won’t be long until the first frost, which I think should put an end to this unusually long flowering season.
Which is a shame. The flowers have been wonderful this year.
October 4th – I was surprised to note that the warm autumn, which has seen dead-nettles enter a second flowering cycle, odd aberrations of occasional foxgloves still in bloom and dandelions still out in pastures has resulted in some unusual sights, but I was surprised to note this ladybird still quite active on Clayhanger Common.
One thing’s for sure – when the cold sets in, it’ll be a shock to the system…
October 2nd -It was a gorgeous autumn day – chilly, but still and the the sun shone, it was warm on the face. I finally solved a pressing technical issue on the bike, then headed out to Middletn Hall for tea and cake, then up the canal to Tamworth and back through Hints and Weeford.
It was the kind of ride that makes you realise autumn isn’t that bad after all, and in the golden hour travelling through Shenstone, with the church occupied and a service ongoing, even the looming dusk seemed magical.
October 1st – Autumn landed with a bump. A saturated, wet day, and a short break in the rain saw me head to Lichfield on an urgent errand – and I got caught by the rain on my way back.
The landscape was wet. I was wet. The skies looked threatening. But Stowe Pool and that view remained captivating.
I was back to where I am every winter – I don’t necessarily want to go out, but I have to. It’s an imperative, get fresh air, exercise, and engage with the outside world – for the good of my health: mental and physical.
Some things make even the most horrible trip out worthwhile.
September 28th – I’m seeing lots of these berries in patches of shrubbery planted along cycleways and and other urban spaces like industrial estates at the moment. I have no idea what they are, but the density of the fruit head is fascinating me.
Anyone know what these are, please?
September 26th – There’s still a bountiful crop of elderberries for the taking out in the hedgerows, thickets and copses of the area. I spent a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon getting very red fingers collecting for a family winemaker.
Elderberries make a gorgeously dark, potent wine that in the the hands of a skilled winemaker can be way better than any shop-bought red wine.
One of the benefits of autumn!
September 26th – On my way home in the road in the backstreets of Walsall, I spotted these large acorns in unusually hairy cups. Not having seen the like before, I assumed there were some kind f insect gall.
Looking it up when I got home, these are actually the acorns f a turkey oak, and quite normal for the species. I’ve never seen them before, and they’re quite alien after the familiar gnarled, knobbly normal acorn cup one usually sees.
An interesting oddity.
September 24th – Near Anchor Bridge on the canal at Brownhills, autumn isn’t much in evidence apart from a chill in the air and a strong wind with a familiarly hostile edge.
But in a canalside garden, a healthy crop of what appear to be good cooking apples. Bet they’d make a nice pie.
September 23rd – At Calton, high in the Weaver Hills, I was surprised to find a tree with a huge crop of ripe plums, so ripe that they were falling off the tree and rotting on the ground, food only for birds and a huge army of wasps.
A taste of one of the purple fruit told me why they were untouched – so tart my face nearly turned inside out.
This was no deterrent to the wasps, however, who were too busy to bother the inquisitive human with the camera.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 