November 7th – Coming up from the Black Country, back to Walsall – at this time of year, Junction 9 is the safest route, as the traffic volume makes negotiation of the junctions easier.
Music is ‘Snapshot’ by the Art of Noise.
November 4th – The autumn colours were great this morning. When I started my ride to work, it was in semi darkness and drizzle; by the time I got there it was sunny, with clear blue skies.
Looking up in Darlaston’s Kings Hill Park through a canopy of yellow orange leaves, it felt good to be alive, to be there in the here and now.
It happened every year. I dread the onset of Autumn, and the wily old devil charms me to love in the end.
It was ever thus.
November 2nd – Walsall, on a crisp, chilly but sunny autumn day.
You couldn’t wish for anywhere finer: Walsall may have it’s detractors, but the trees.The mixed architecture. The sunlight.
THis’ll do.
October 31st – The mornings have been damp over the weekend, and we’ve had a little rain in what has generally been a very dry autumn indeed. This has led to the fungus taking a surge, and I noted in the canal cutting through Pleck this morning there was lots of fly agaric growing, some of which were astoundingly large. Contrary to my earlier fears, it actually seems to have been their year after all.
Meanwhile, the toadstools I found on the log at the back of Queen Street Cemetery have turned a gorgeous orange brown colour as they mature and die off.
Lets hope with a little damper weather, more fungus will appear. I love to see it.
October 28th – An irritating day where I forgot my camera and everything happened at top speed, so little time to take photos. I’d been over to Telford in the afternoon and came back from Shenstone as dusk fell.
These lanes, I know them so well; they run though my veins like blood. I must have ridden this route thousands of times, and certainly many with the impending feeling of autumn I had today.
I know I will again ride this way on a springtime, sunny day and the wheel will continue it’s inexorable rotation, but tonight, in the gathering dark, it felt a very long way off.
I hate the dark months.
October 27th – Again passing through Telford, I came past a row of trees on Stafford Park whose neat, straight planting always fascinated me.
Just beginning to turn, they’re a welcome dash of colour in a grey urban landscape on a dull day.
Every year, I note these trees come into leaf, blossom, and shed their leaves. Seeing another cycle complete makes me feel old…
October 26th – I had to nip to Telford in the afternoon, and again, I bore you with autumn pictures – but this really is the best time to see and use the cycleways of the new town.
On a grey, damp day, who’d have thought a track so mundane it has no name could be so beautiful?
October 25th – I’d been to Droitwich to see a customer and get some other bits and pieces done, and noted that the Autumn there too was very special, with the wide main roads lined with a variety of trees in excellent seasonal hues.
On my return from the station, I slipped through Little Aston Forge and Bosses, where I spotted the crimson ivy gable wall, and the driveway bed of beautiful flowers.
The last few days really have been beautiful out there.
October 24th – Something out of the ordinary picked up by the ride cam as I hopped on the canal at Moxley on my way to Great Bridge on an errand at midday.
Riding the canals, you get used to seeing rats occasionally, but this small one was absolutely frantic to get somewhere safe, and repeatedly tried to jump over the wall, but each time failed.
I understand people not liking them, but they really are fascinating creatures.
October 24th – Passing Jockey Meadows on the way home, the clean up from the recent sewer problems near Bullings Heath is still ongoing, with tankers pumping our sumps and groundwater in series during the day. I noted as I passed a diesel standby pump dropped in a field, and pipeline equipment. It’s either for flushing, or pumping water out of the brook into the sewers for a while.
The work here has been protracted and involved, and the efforts taken to avoid damaging the local ecology with raw sewage have been dedicated and impressive.
Let’s hope all the issues are resolved shortly.
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