Clayhanger – Page 17 – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

January 1st – Oh hi 2018, where did you spring from? Not yet back at work and sunset already past 4pm. You can stay, new year, you can stay.

Well, the Canon GX7 is a remarkable bit of kit if I’m honest. I’d been home all day with guests and family stuff to do, and nipped out in the evening on an errand. I found Brownhills and Clayhanger somnambulant, deserted and desolate. It had been raining. It was very windy. I was feeling, if I’m honest, low.

Then I got to playing with this camera. My goodness, I think I’m in love. Some familiar muses here, from the otherworldly portal of Silver Court and it’s ethereal cashpoint glow to the dystopian Ravens Court, I’m going to have some fun with this one. Oh yes.

Unexpected clarity on what could have been a really low evening.

December 24th – The weather was bad, I had much to do, so I didn’t go far. I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m nursing a shoulder injury at the moment which is making life uncomfortable – sustained falling over my own feet on the stairs, I ended up with bruises and some kind of muscle strain that’s making long rides very uncomfortable right now.

I was pleased to see however that at Clayhanger Common, in the usual spot, earthstar fungus had returned this year. The fungus here doesn’t usually show until December when the leaves are finally off the brambles that cover their spot, and this time, they’d been difficult to reach on a bike due to the snow.

I finally noted one badly damaged by frost and the spore pods of several others, so at least we had a crop this year, even if it went mostly unrecorded.

They are an most unusual fungus.

November 30th – Heading home that evening I hit the canal at the Black Cock Bridge and rode into Brownhills in peaceful, cold darkness.

I stopped to have a go at one of my favourite muses – Clayhanger Bridge by night – and by removing the bike light, putting it on full and shining round, I don’t think I got a bad pic.

That’s ice on the canal, by the way.

November 18th – A day of spannering bikes and a hurried test ride out late afternoon. The light was terrible and things looking grim, then a spot of brightness on Clayhanger Common – ox-eye daisies still in full, fresh bloom.

A great discovery on a down in the dumps Saturday.

November 11th – I wasn’t well following the procedure I’d had in the week, as I’d neglected my medication, so I took a short spin out for some air after dark.

It was a good chance to try long exposure photography, and the results weren’t too bad. But my heart wasn’t in it: I was cold, tired, fed up, and returned home with a heavy heart.

October 24th – With the immediate rush easing off a little, I took a diversion on the way to work to check out the earthstar fungi a little further up the industrial estate I discovered accidentally a few weeks ago.

They’re doing wonderfully and there were some perfect specimens.

I love how they look like they’ve been made out of clay or plasticine. Their shapes almost look inorganic.

fungi are fascinating. I wonder if we’ll get any in the usual spot on Clayhanger Common this year? They normally come later, around December…

October 22nd – A very decent, dark sunset descended on Brownhills. The day was still very windy, an rather wolfish so not really great for riding, really. But I can live with clear skies, a little sun and strong wind.

Sunsets like this, now hovering around 6pm before the end of British Summer Time next weekend, remind me that winter will soon be upon us.

October 21st – A blustery, showery day, so I restricted myself to a short ride around the patch, washing through the leaves shaken free by the storm. At the new pond at Clayhanger, I noticed a healthy, beautiful holly bush with a dense crop of berries growing in the marsh at the back of the pool. That’s a sign Christmas is coming, for sure.

Autumn has been strange this year. It’s like we fell out of summer with a bump and kept bouncing off winter with no transition…

September 27th – I deliberately made an effort to pass the same clump of glistening ink caps the next morning, to see how far they’d progressed.

As I predicted, just over 12 hours later, they were already decaying to nothing.

Isn’t nature remarkable?

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.