Tag: commute

June 15th – I heard about the local poppy field on Facebook, and it being very sunny and early, I took a detour on the way to work to check it out.

The field is just on the east of the Chester Road before the Wood Lane junction and is glorious. A few snatched pictures don’t do this gem justice. I will revisit it soon.

I love to see the poppy fields at this time of year, and welcome their rise since the drop in farming use of herbicides that used to kill them.I also adore the randomnesss of the places they appear – never the same two years running.

A beautiful and ephemeral thing – get out and see it while it lasts.

June 14th – The desire-path created behind the canal overflow at Clayhanger continues to fascinate me, particularly in the way the arch has formed in the scrub. 

I don’t know who’s walking this way regularly enough to keep it so clear – it may even bee the deer who dwell on the common – but whoever it is has created a charming, odd little portal that could be to a fairy tail place, or just to Clayhanger…

Not much difference between the two, really…

June 14th – I notice that on the embankment on the north side of the Black Cock Bridge in Walsall Wood, the vipers bugloss is flowering again. In 2014, this was very prolific, in full bloom for about 20-30 metres, but now is sadly confined to just the one clump.

A beautiful flower though, and one I’ve not seen anywhere else locally. 

June 8th – Passing down Scarborough Road in Pleck, south Walsall I noticed these cats, clearly waiting for the return of their owners from work. The two black and white ones seem to be siblings and clearly aren’t particularly fond of each other; I’ve recorded them studiously ignoring each other before.

I’m intrigued by the grey one, though – I’ve not seen that one before and it looks like a gorgeous cat. 

I was also amused by the disgusted expression of the one in the foreground. If looks could kill….

June 7th –  A lovely, chance find whilst riding through Victoria Park, Darlaston. Part of this urban oasis, right in the centre of Darlaston, has been left to wild and apparently spread with wildflower seeds. Just as I rode past it, I spotted a small purple flower that demanded closer study. I wasn’t disappointed.

A lovely orchid growing right there. What a glorious, pretty and wonderful thing!

So good to see after so many years of these important flowers being so rare…

June 7th – After seeing the rhizomes floating in the canal earlier in the season, it’s gratifying to note that the development of this season’s water lilies has been sift – and a matter of a couple of week the characteristic large, leathery leaves have formed, and now the first tentative flowers were out as I rode to work along the canal at Bentley Bridge.

Two listing species are common on local canals – yellow and white, and both are gorgeous. A lovely sight.

June 6th – I had a remarkable journey home, assisted by a big west wind, that blew me back in 45 minutes at an astonishing average of 16mph. I was also remarkable dry, catching only the briefest edge of a squall at Shelfield.

The remarkably local rainfall was illustrated well as I came down Green Lane, where everything was sodden, but the sky was clearing.

A remarkably luck commute – in total contrast to the morning. 
You win some, you lose some…

June 6th – A truly awful morning commute with 30mph headwinds and driving rain made for a squally, wolfish day; but in the afternoon the constant rain broke to showers, and I went about getting some stuff done in the Black Country. Returning home from Tipton, I headed for Wednesbury from Ocker Hill and caught my favourite twin sisters – the churches that crown Church Hill in Wednesbury – is sunlight but with threatening skies.

I love this place. Even in bad weather. It’s where my heart is.

June 5th – An awful day that found me running around the Black Country on errands. A strong wind, threatening rain and late for a meeting caused me to hop on a train at Wolverhampton.

Wolverhampton station is functional, but I dislike it – it always feels harsh, inhuman and exposed. With threatening skies today it was almost dystopian.