Tag: Green Lane

July 5th – Coppice Woods, or to give this small copse it’s proper name, Goblins Pit Wood is what I believe to be the last remnant of the holly and oak woodlands that used to cover our area before the industrial revolution. Quite why it survived, I don’t know, but now part of the Jockey Meadows SSSI, the future of this woodland seems secure.

There’s still plenty of oak and holly, but other deciduous trees make for a variety of habitats for bats, mustelids, rodents, birds and insects.

On this sunny evening ride home, Coppice Woods were a peaceful, sleepy sanctuary from the rush-hour traffic on Green Lane.

June 14th – I’ve been aware that Jockey Meadows has it’s own cat for a while. I sometimes see him disappearing into the meadow, or running over the lane into the wood. He always seems busy, and I think he lives at the cottages near Grange Farm.

Today, we met face to face – as I rode down Green Lane, I spotted him perched on a gatepost. Large, slightly long haired and with splendidly white whites he’s an impressive, large lad. We exchanged pleasantries, and then he continued his vigil.

That cat must have a ball. Acres of woodland, hedgerow and meadow right on his doorstep, he can while away his time dozing in any quiet spot he likes, or patrol a huge territory packed with interesting, small and squeaky things. 

What a life.

May 23 – I get a bit tired sometimes of defending Brownhills, Walsall and the Black Country. People call all three dirty, unpleasant, polluted, ugly.

All these animals were seen on my journey to and from work today. There can’t be many urban situations where you pass deer and herons on a Monday morning, can there?

I particularly liked the cygnet preening, just like it’s mum.

I love this place.

April 19th – Spotted on the way home, a small group of red deer at the far side of a freshly planted field on the south side of Jockey Meadows, near High Heath.

Haven’t seen deer on this side of Green Lane for a while. They were right over by the brook, and I guess they’d been laying low in the marsh there for most of the day.

I still can’t really believe we live in a place where these large, wonderful and beautiful creatures roam freely.

After all these years, to see the deer is still a delight.

March 21st – Passing the fields at the Shelfield end of Green Lane, I smelt the delicious, dark smell of freshly turned earth, and noticed the field near the Mob Lane junction had been ploughed, harrowed and planted.

I noted a lot of fields locally have been ploughed in the last week or so. Perhaps farmers now feel they’re clear enough of winter to risk spring planting.

So beautiful to see the brown fields, full of promise for a new growing season.

February 15th – My deer magnet is currently working well.

I stopped in Shelfield to catch the sunset, and came upon a herd of red deer near Coppice Woods on Green Lane.

They were comfortably loafing, and showed slight interest in me, but weren’t overly bothered. I still can’t believe these wonderful creatures roam free in out countryside.

A wonderful, and unexpected sight. Shame the light wasn’t better!

January 17th – Recently had a new fridge or freezer? Left the old one out for the scrap man to collect? Well done, this is where the bits they couldn’t weigh in ended up.

This is the ditch running beside Green Lane at Bullings Heath, Walsall Wood.

If you leave stuff out for tatters and scrap men, you aren’t recycling, and it’s not out of sight, out of mind. We all have to pay to get this stuff cleaned up. The rubbish fairy doesn’t exist.

Leaving stuff out in the hope it’ll disappear as if by magic renders you no better than a flytipper, which is, incidentally, the way it’s considered in law.

December 8th – A grim day in which everything went wrong, including leaving home with a flat camera. At work, I recharged it, but I left for home in steady rain and got as far as High Heath before I felt motivated to use it.

Today, the ride in had been dogged by wind and a mechanical issue, work itself had been a succession of protracted difficulties and conflicts, and the ride home was wet and I was without waterproofs. I stopped in a deserted, wet Green Lane, this desolate view is exactly how I felt.

Tomorrow will be better. It has to be.