Tag: Darlaston

October 25th – I popped into Darlaston on an errand from work at noon, on a lovely sunny late autumn day, and took time to appreciate the architecture of this lovely town. Across the hedges and careful topiary of the gardens of Rectory Avenue, the twin historic fascinations of the Columbarium and St Lawrence’s Church; just around the corner Pardoes Cottage, a curiosity in it’s own, handsome right.

My inly frustration is the inability ti get a good angle on that lovely church, although it’s one positive aspect of autumn – in summer one can barely see the church at all!

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 20th – And in the green heaven of Kings Hill Park, where clearly busy people tend the flowers unseen to me, a bright, colourful reminder that the beauty isn’t over yet.

Spotted with raindrops, battered by the wind, these planters are still absolutely gorgeous and remind me of why I love the outdoors and why I appreciate this town and it’s hidden, lovely spaces.

I’m BrownhillsBob, not DarloDave. But for a twist of fate, I could have been – and would have been proud to be so.

October 20th – In to work early, and on a morning of patchy rain and light, fast sunny spells, two pauses in my hurried journey at Victoria Park and Kings Hill Park, both looking absolutely gorgeous in their autumn jackets.

Darlaston is a grubby, grimy industrial Black Country town – and is everything the Black Country is; busy, historic, full of hidden beauty under an ostensibly ugly exterior, charming, real and a great place to be. And like the wider Black Country, it’s full of green parks and open spaces where the hurried traveller can catch a breath, sip his tea and think about the day to come.

October 16th – An very strange weather day. We were expecting severe storms in the afternoon, and in the morning, to a gradually increasing wing, the sky and light turned pink. Not just a light, gentle pink, but a deep, strong pink that suffused everything and made one think the end was coming.

It actually turned out to be pollution and sand dust in the upper atmosphere caused by the oncoming, dying hurricane, but the effect was bfar better than any eclipse I’ve ever seen. 

For an hour or so on an otherwise unremarkable October morning, the world went a little bit strange for us all.

October 12th – In Darlaston Green on a sunny day, outside the old Charles Richards works, I spot a small but amusing bit of whimsy. The owner of the land rover that parks here – which has an ingenious and wide range of interchangeable rear bodies for different tasks – clearly has a log burner and is preparing for winter with some good logs and a cutting trestle. But also here is a chainsaw-cut carving of a large toadstool from what looks like an ash log.

It’s well executed and mad me smile.

October 11th – Spotted on the way to work, again on the rich, undisturbed grass of an industrial estate verge, some kind of tricholomo – probably dingy. These medium sized, grey and almost downy toadstools were really pretty in their way and I’ve not seen them before.

Every year seems to throw up new fungi to me. I love to find them and puzzle over what they might be.

October 3rd – I’d forgotten my camera, I was heading home late and flustered, what an unfortunate time to witness an astonishing sunset. 

Looking from Kings Hill west to Wolverhampton, across the ether the cellphone mast silently talks endlessly to, the sky was bright crimson, rippled and utterly stunning.

And the phone didn’t capture it at all. Bugger.

Ah well, there will be other sunsets that hopefully, catch me better equipped.