August 29th – I nipped down to Stonnall to see a pal and left just as dusk was closing in. As I came over Shire Oak Hill and back into Brownhills, the sky caught fire with a most gorgeous sunset.
Brownhills never looked better.
Tag: Chester Road
August 5th – I was feeling OK, it was just after sunrise on a bright summer day and so I decided to head to work via Aldridge and the Chester Road at Stonnall, just to catch Grove Hill in the soft light. There seems to be a crop of potatoes growing around the iconic tree, but the lower field of wheat has been harvested.
In the early morning light the stubble looked golden and beautiful, and I was puzzled by the one remaining stack of square straw bales. You don’t see many square ones these days. Unusual.
I love this spot and haven’t photographed it for ages. But it changes little, and always retains it’s magic.
May 1st – Similarly, this poor phone photo of Fishpond Wood in Stonnall barely does the subject justice either – the bluebells there in the wood just off the Chester Road between Stonnall and Shire Oak were divine in the golden hour.
I was kicking myself for forgetting the camera.
April 28th – A frantic day, working late. I came home at sunset, and crested Shire Oak Hill, heading to Stonnall to bag a takeaway for tea.
On the way a patch of Spanish bluebells, almost fluorescent in the evening light. Gorgeous.
Such an excellent season, this spring.
February 14th – A day spent sleeping, relaxing, and catching up. I had business in Stonnall in the evening, so nipped down there. Progress was slow. I was still tired.
On the Chester Road just past the houses – at the spot once colloquially referred to as ‘death mile’ or ‘mad mile’ after so many accidents – new speed restriction signs have appeared. ‘Please drive carefully’. I’ve never understood this rubbish, personally.
(Death Mile became much, much safer after the road was modified in the 1990s.)
For starters, much of the traffic passing will be too fast to read anything other than the restriction; and secondly, who the hell decides to drive with wicked abandon only to later correct their behaviour because some quango or councillor decided to ask them to drive nicely in 180-point Helvetica Black?
There is something interesting here, though. That sign didn’t originally say Shire Oak; that legend has been added on a foil applied over other text, which could possibly say ‘Brownhills’, but I can’t decide.
Are the folk on the Hill too posh and are now pushing for independence? In these straitened days, does anyone really care that much? And before the whinging starts, Shire Oak is indeed in the parish of Brownhills.
October 26th – I popped up to Shire Oak Park on the way back, which was also looking good in its autumnal jacket. It was looking less green, but it was pleasant and tidy as it usually is.
On my return to Brownhills a splash of colour caught my eye on a verge on the Chester Road; beautiful vivid red rosebuds, and by Anchor Bridge the ink caps were growing well.
Autumn is a bit of a curate’s egg sometimes.
August 15th – Climbing the hill from Stonnall, I passed the entry to Shire Oak Park. There was once a gate here that either got broken or stolen, I’m unclear of the exact detail. For over 12 months now, the gate has been replaced by a variety of hastily-nailed planks, torn down once to enable access for flytipping.
Now, the gate has been replaced by two removable steel bollards.
They don’t look terribly beefy to me. But time will tell. I can’t quite get my head around how long this has taken to sort out.
July 9th – I’ve worked 40 out of the last 64 hours. It isn’t leaving a lot of time for anything much, but I’m still cycling; it’s my interregnum between home and work, and enables me to straighten things out and relax a bit.
This was my journey home tonight from New Street Station, in snatched photos.
Stations at night again, I can’t help myself. It’s that Late Night Feelings thing coming to the surface again…
June 27th – This post was inspired by top Pelsall geezer Matt Drew, who spotted a different clump of these fellows and posted a pic on Facebook last week, inspiring me to look out for them.
These delightfully spiky caterpillars are the larvae of the beautiful peacock butterfly. They really are rather impressively hostile-looking, but cute at the same time – I spotted them in a nettle bed at the top of Shire Oak Hill, near the old quarry there.
In summer, the adult female peacock will lay between 200 and 500 eggs at the very top of a stinging nettle in direct sunlight. 10 days later they’ll hatch, and the emerging caterpillars will spin a communal web-tent out of silk (see the top picture) which they’ll live in until large enough to leave; they live and grow in clumps at the top of nettles, and as they grow, they may move from nettle to nettle in a patch together as a group, before pupating separately.
They’re easy to spot as a dark infestation at the tops of the tallest nettles in a nettle bed.
Male peacock butterflies are very territorial, and can often be seen attempting to chase away birds that may be coming near their selected nettle patch.
I’m glad I found some – and thanks again to Matt for the inspiration to look.
May 23rd – I noticed something today I’d not spotted before. Cycling back up the Chester Road from Mill Green, as the land rises and undulates (from about 130m AOD to about 175m AOD) the plant life on the grass verges and in the hedgerows changes. At the low end, there’s birds foot trefoil, ragwort, ox-eye daises and clover in abundance in lush green grass. Higher up, these plants peter out to campion, dandelions and spiky grasses. Wonder if it’s changing soil or height?
The trefoil – called egg and bacon by us as kids – is lovely this year, and always looks nice after rain.
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