Tag: canal

September 26th – Further up the canal at Pelsall Road, I noticed what appeared to be oil on the surface of the canal. I was quite concerned as I approached, but I realised as I got closer that the scum is in fact a mixture of leaf-litter and other seed debris that had fallen onto the surface of the water. There must be physical reasons why it all seems to clump in one place…

September 25th – Autumn is here now. I hate the interregnum between summer and autumn, neither one thing nor the other. I like Autumn – or at least, come to like it – when the leaves turn and the colours turn from green to gold. Despite the oddly warm weather right now, it’s starting to happen. A creeper in the hedgerow near the Black Cock Bridge has gone a deep, dark red, and along the canal to Brownhills, yellow and brown are starting to insinuate themselves into the trees and thickets. It’ll soon be time to get up into Abraham’s Valley on Cannock Chase, and capture the glory of the pines turning for another year.

September 23rd – The Birchils lock flight in Walsall is currently closed and mostly drained for maintenance. It’s interesting to see the pounds drained, and how much junk accumulates in them. Also the simple technology of damming the water to allow work to take place. Some flow still accrues due to overspill, and I was impressed with how clear and clean that was, and I noted how it had cut down to the clay liner – the ‘puddling’ – that keeps the canal water from soaking into the earth.

I don’t know how long the work will go on for, but it’s nice to see the locks being maintained.

September 22nd – It’s not been a great weekend, really. I seem to have contracted a cold, which left me feeling hungover on Saturday and just plain horrid today. It was with a sinus-generated migraine that I finally got it together and headed out at dusk. I found the dark soothing, and it made the visual disturbance less apparent. It was very still, and the sunset was gorgeous. Any other weekend I’d have been over the hills and far away, but today, my energy was sapped just doing a small loop on the canal around Clayhanger.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

September 19th – I found myself out and about in the sunshine after rain with an empty camera case – which isn’t good. Rather than whizz home for my camera, I figured I’d have a play with the phone camera. It isn’t too bad, as it happens. The contrast seems a bit harsh, and it seems a little over saturated, but not unpleasant. The panorama mode is really better than the one in my camera.

I’d headed across the common and back down the old rail line and onto the canal. Apart from a few tinges of orange-brown and the obvious crimson hues of hawthorn, rowan and rose hip, you’d think we were still in late summer.

September 18th – This grey wagtail and several others have been busy along the canal at Catshill, Brownhills, all summer. Before this year, I’d never seen one in Brownhills, and I’m pleased to note their appearance. A small, yellow and grey bird, it has an erratic, pulsing flight that’s fascinating. All the time he’s on the ground, he’s bobbin up and down in the characteristic way that wagtails do.

A lovely, joyous addition to the local wildlife. Sorry for the grainy pics, but the bird was quite a way off.

September 15th – My nosiness will one day be my undoing. For months now I’ve been curious about a drain cover I noticed at the top of the rough steps up to the old railway walk, just on the canal by Pelsall Road, Brownhills. It’s puzzled me because, well, there are no services up there, and no drains – certainly no electrics or telephony. But the access cover is new, and probably put there by whoever constructed the steps (and I never did find out who was responsible for those). Today, my curiosity bettered me and I flipped the plastic lid open – there’s a empty, corrugated tube veering to the side. A pebble dropped goes a fair way.

I popped the lid back, and went on my way, none the wiser…

September 8th – A hard 50 miler. I headed out to Hopwas Hays and explored the wood some more, finding what I think were training buildings for basic urban assault practice. They had a curious alley construction between them which would seem to be for practice around blind corners. These days, they seem to attract kids and campers. 

From there, I headed east through Harlaston and Clifton, then south through Thorpe Constantine and Seckington. The sky was darkening, and by the time I hit Shuttington and the canal at Alvecote, it was raining hard. Sadly, the band of rain followed me home. I was soaked and tired.

Still, it was nice to see the conkers doing well, despite the evidence of leaf-miner blight, and even the late hairbells were lovely.

Can’t avoid the feeling of autumn, too. As I rode home, the smell of coal smoke was heavy on the air, and there was a distinct chill.

September 6th – The rains came today, but not too much. Skipping out weary in the afternoon, I rode the canal towpaths which were quiet, and fast. There was that lovely fresh earth, post rain smell, and the landscape looked clean and fresh. What impressed me most, though was the huge variety of flowers and plants still showing well along the towpath. This selection were all spotted between the Pier Street Bridge and Coopers Bridge, just by the Watermead.