Tag: Grange Farm

August 31st – Returning home wearily as the light died, there was a very nice, purple-tinted sunset over Walsall, but I couldn’t find a good view of it without seriously going out of my way, which I was way too tired to do. Thankfully though, it gathered well and looked even better over the fields from Jockey Meadows out to the north over Grange Farm.

Thankfully, that’ll be the last late day until next week and I can chill out and catch up with things a bit… and hopefully get some better photos!

September 29th – Jockey Meadows and the surrounding farmland are shrugging on their Autumn jacket now; the colours are moving from greens and golds to taupe and dark brown. The crops have been harvested, and I expect soon these fields will be ploughed.

This is the sadness of the time of year for me; not yet 7pm, and getting dark; the colours of summer to the colours of cold, and hibernation.

And so the seasons tick on. I can feel the darkness creeping in…

June 22nd – Grange Farm at High Heath seems to operate a crop rotation system. Last year in this field near High Heath, there was a fine crop of oilseed rape. This year, it’s barley – and it seems to be ripening well.

It’s interesting to note just how uniform this crop is, and how dense the seed heads. Looks like it’s been a good season for it…

May 8th – Coming along the canal past Grange Farm in Walsall Wood (just between Black Cock Bridge and Clayhanger Bridge) I noticed the small group of deer in the coppice belt between the towpath and fields. Sheltering from the rain, they hung around and although skittish, allowed me to take photos.

One of the deer (not pictured) appeared to have a nasty sore on her snout, which was sad. They appeared to be healthy otherwise, though.

March 15th – To compound a bad ride, I had to go up to Walsall Wood, and my beer magnet was at full power. Excellent, you might think. Fourteen reds in a loose group, on the field margin along the canal that borders Grange Farm, Walsall Wood. Largest group I’d seen for a while, and there were some impressive specimens.

Just one snag: there was a thin scrub-copse and barbed wire fence stopping me getting through the trees to get good photos. Immensely frustrating.

Aaargh!

July 29th – The harvest actually started a few days ago, but I was in too much of a hurry that night to get home, there was no time to stop and take photos. This was a field of oilseed rape, on the corner of Green Lane and Mob Lane, just by Grange Farm, in Walsall Wood. The dry plant has been harvested for it’s tiny, black seeds, threshed out of their pots by complex harvesting machinery. The pods, chaff and stalks are shredded, and sprayed back out on the ground to be ploughed back in.

Once the harvest starts, you know the season is marching onwards…

21st July – It’s been a lovely day, but the ride home was hard. I’d been on my feet all day, and to be quite frank, the left one still hurts, and was punishing me on the way back, as were the hills and the wind. All I could do was try to relax, click down the gears and enjoy the sun.

It’s been a good season so far, warm, sunny and not too wet, and this shows in the fields around Grange Farm in Green Lane, Walsall Wood. The barley on the edge of jockey meadows is hypnotic to watch in the breeze, and the oilseed rape on the corner of Green and Mob Lanes is golden. 

Soon, the harvest will be upon us, and a new range of sights and sounds.

May 13th – Greetings from the West Midlands conurbation. 

This is post industrial land, between Shelfield and Walsall Wood; scarred by mining, marl extraction and years of poor drainage. Now partially a site of Special Scientific Interest, the land here is a beautiful green lung.

The Oilseed Rape on the corner by Grange Farm is nearly over now, but the may is out, and with cowparsley bobbing in the wind, one might be somewhere more rural. 

Cows have been let loose on Jockey Meadows again – I assume it’s part of the rotational heathland management here. They seem in their element in this boggy watermeadow. 

Wen did this space – in my youth a hinterland of desertion and scrubby, polluted bog – get so beautiful?

15th April – I noted when passing this evening that the field of oilseed rape at Grange Farm, on the Walsall Wood – Shelfield border was nearly fully in flower. The scent doesn’t seem to have risen yet, but it is beautiful. I love this stuff; such a striking sight in the countryside.

Even quite late this field was alive with bugs, bees and butterflies. Which has to be a good thing…