October 13th – Chester is always a delight from the cormorants loafing on the Dee like old men on a park bench to the chimneys and remarkably diverse architectural threads, and in autumn, it’s amplified, particularly on a day with such dramatic skies.
I love the central shopping area with the ‘rows’ – upper tier walkways, bridges and balconies that weave and dodge, reminding you of Pratchet’s Ankh Morpork.
A great afternoon.
October 12th – Passing back through Walsall Wood at sunset, I was rewarded with a beautiful purple sky. How fabulous is that?
There really have been some wonderful sunsets of late.
October 8th – Up in the cinematic, wide open landscape of Brocton Field, there’s a historical, Great War curiosity that serves as a lovely memorial and good map explorer exercise for kids and newcomers to this fine place – Freda’s Grave.
The grave, off a minor footpath high above the Sherbrook Valley, is the resting place of the mascot of the New Zealand Rifles who were stationed here as the awful conflict came to a close. The harlequin Great Dane was very much loved, and her memorial has been periodically renewed and restored.
It’s good to see so many people pay tribute, a testament to the UK (and New Zealand’s, of course) love affair with our best friends.
You can find out more about Freda here.
I descended into the valley, and across a gradually darkened Chase lifted by the quality of the day, the ride and finally, fresh air and the joy of getting back to somewhere I love and hadn’t been for ages.
October 2nd – This has really, really surprised me. Mooching about the industrial estate where I work in Darlaston, I was looking for some paperwork that had blown up the road, and retrieving it from a hedge, spotted these beauties thriving beneath.
I see earth star fungus on Clayhanger Common in December, but wasn’t aware they grew this early. Looking like they’re clay or plastic, they are the most extraordinary fungi I’ve ever seen, and finding them is a real treat – there is a whole colony there, growing undisturbed in a roadside bed hardly anyone would ever notice.
Amusingly, Tumblr (the blog platform this journal runs on) has a system that automatically scans images posted, and detected these photos as being indecent. Sent for re-review, they were obviously passed as a false alert.
It just goes to show, some shapes recur throughout nature…
September 29th – Shaky, handheld, badly focused film, but these little guys stole my heart. The nose-boop with mom was just gorgeous.
Bless them. They made my week!
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 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 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 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.
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