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 6th – At Clayhanger Common, I’m pleased to see the Japanese Parasols coming up again this year. Also known as the pleated ink cap, these tiny, delicate toadstools open into a pleated parasol and are beautifully delicate, but also short lived, being gone within 48 hours or so.
Must check if the orange peel fungus and rosy earthstars are back this year, too.
July 30th – We seem to be in a period of really dramatic sunsets again.
The same one, 30 minutes apart. So much beauty out there in the everyday if you keep an eye out for it.
June 26th – Cutting across the common, there are plenty of flowers in bloom, and the bees are busy. Blues and purples seem the order of the day, with late forget-me-nots, purple comfrey vetch and others all showing well.
Also rather lovely are the dandelions – not just those flowering, but those gone to seed, too – such lovely, natural engineering.
May 30th – I wasn’t well today. The long ride of the day before had maybe taken a toll, but I didn’t sleep well, and suffered a migraine in the morning. The day was a bit wolfish, too, with a strengthening wind, so I confined myself to a trip to Chasewater and back over the common and canals mid-afternoon.
I haven’t been this way for ages, and I’m sad, as it was absolutely beautiful; Brownhills wears it’s spring jacket beautifully, and the buttercup meadows on the farmland to the rear of the old Rising Sun pub have to be seen to be believed; but also at The Slough, the hawthorn blossom is beautiful.
I still felt damned ropey, but at least I felt better about myself.
May 13th – On Clayhanger Common, a welcome splash of colour is the red campion, that’s flowering well now near Pier Street bridge.
Such beautiful, pink flowers. So good to see them.
April 25th – Despite the very poor weather, on Clayhanger Common, my favourite flowers are having a good year. I absolutely adore cowslips – gorgeous, delicate small yellow primroses, and there are lots growing there now, at lease two or three patches from seed I scattered here a few years ago.
Guerrilla planting is wonderful. Do some today.
April 2nd – Elsewhere around Clayhanger and Brownhills on this golden afternoon, momma swan was still giving me the evil eye from her nest on the canalside by the Watermead estate, but she did pause to stand and turn her eggs. The crested grebe still seems happy pottering on the canal near Walsall Wood, and continuing the mad, unsynchronised spring Spanish bluebells are flowering in a hedgerow at Clayhanger Common.
Spring is well underway, it’s warming up at last and everything is starting. Fantastic!
April 1st – This spring is a bit mad, for sure. Spotted on Clayhanger Common, this solitary cowslip is in healthy bloom. My favourite flowers, they’re normally far later than this.
Perhaps this one couldn’t wait. Whatever the reason, it’s too good to see my little yellow friends back on the scene.
March 30th – A better day all round – and as if to cement that, fruit blossom on Clayhanger Common. I believe this to be the flower of wild plum, which were growing in this spot for the past few years. The flowers are beautiful, and gladdened my heart on my journey to Walsall Wood on an errand.
The towpaths were drying out, geese and ducks honked joyfully on the canal and everything seemed just a tad warmer.
I often say ‘tomorrow’s another day’ and so it was. From the low finish of Tuesday into a brighter day.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 