December 11th – As the grey, damp days and dark nights wind on, it’s hard finding colour in the world, and it can be hard to keep this thing positive – but it’s not hard at all when you spot things as lovely as these polyanthus, recently planted at Telford station, which seem to be blooming just in time for Christmas.
I was making a flying visit at lunchtime, and the journey was long and fraught – but these cheered me on no end.
November 29th – An early afternoon loop up to Chasewater of a warm but blowy day caught me in the rain once more. The canal was deserted and everything looked grey; Chasewater was little better.
The wind was such that it drove groups of swans into the shallows over by the dam for shelter, and they didn’t look very happy about it; even the gulls loafed idly in the shallows.
I’m fed up of this weather. There has to be better spell on the horizon. This is grinding me down and making photography very hard!
October 27th – I had to nip to Priorslee to pick something up. The trail crosses the M54 via a pedestrian/cycle bridge that twangs gently when you cross it, and resonates with every large lorry that passes underneath.
From the bridge, the embankments of the motorway were displaying wonderful colour even on this dull day, and the view to my destination looked almost bucolic and mysterious.
Autumn has it’s moments.
October 18th – I also liked how beautiful Walsall Wood was on this greyest of grey Sundays. The trees around the Brookland Road junction look superb – and the church of St. John, this evening with lights on for a service -looked great with the turning leaves in the background.
I felt much better today. I got stuff actually done. Once the black dog settles in it can be the very devil to shift, and at this time of year I’m always susceptible. But in truth, the light nights will return, a new year and new spring will dawn, and I’ll feel the warmth again.
In the meantime, I’ll learn to love the darkness. Sometimes it’s your friend. But it’s like doing a deal with the devil.
There’s a lot of cold, a lot of rough weather and a lot of darkness to come before the next spring.
October 10th – A spin around Brownhills on a grey afternoon on errands and to get some air. I wasn’t feeling too well and the grey autumn day wasn’t helping my mood.
By my cyclic antidepressant worked, and a ride cheered me up. Nice views of the Common, and still, this late, flowers and colour.
Can I really face another winter? I guess so, but I really don’t fancy it this year.
October 9th – Out of work at lunchtime, and off to Brum on an errand. Occasionally sunny, but mostly grey and chilly, a real autumn run into the city down the cycleway from Straitly through Stockland Green and Witton Lakes.
The lakes were beautiful, and the swans as charmingly truculent as ever. I’d still like to know who Georgina is and why she has a way. There is clearly a story there.
Returning on the canals and through the Sandwell Valley in a blue grey dusk, seeing the mist rise over the meadow at Ray Hall was a real ‘wow!’ moment.
A great ride, proving that the seasonal change is inevitable now.
October 6th – A terribly grey morning, spotting with rain and I wasn’t sure I’d make it to work before the heavens opened, but… Victoria Park.
The greenspace at the centre of Darlaston looks beautiful at the moment, even on this greyest of days. Sometimes autumn is so beautiful, you can forgive it the darkness it leads you to.
October 3rd – A short recovery ride over to Clayhanger Marsh and Ryders Mere to keep the legs going and get some fresh air. The afternoon was very grey, and it’s on days like this I often used to see the gnarled old dog fox who hunted here. I think he must have passed away by now, but I thought of him as I surveyed the grey, still waters.
Me and that fox knew each other – we were familiars. As far as I was concerned, he was just another resident of the area, using the facilities available. To him, I was tolerable company as long as I kept silent, made no sudden movements and minded my own business.
Ah well, I daresay one or two of his extended family were watching me from the thickets nearby as I remembered him.
September 21st – I was being watched from a driveway in Lower Stonnall. An apparently elderly but gorgeous tortoiseshell was regarding me with some disdain, while her mate, a gorgeous and large blue-grey chap was taking care of security.
They didn’t like my sort. I wasn’t welcome. Mr. Grey yowled at me. I bid him good afternoon, and left them in contemplative silence.
August 31st – I rode out via Canwell and Middleton to Middleton Hall for a cup of tea and cake, all the while in steady rain. I nipped down to Bodymoor Heath, onto the canal and up to Fazeley Junction. Back along the old A5 to Weeford, then home via Shenstone.
It was warm enough, and there wasn’t much in the way of wind. The roads were quiet and the riding fast; but it was very, very grey and very, very wet. The countryside dripped silently little droplets of grey summer sadness.
As ever on grey days, there was fun and beauty to be found; the architecture of the canals – not just the bold redbrick house, but the small lock-keeper’s hut with the chimney for a stove (how cosy must that have been in winter?); the Kingsbury lock flight and greenery of the canalside reed bed. Fungus is growing well in the damp, and those polypores were huge.
Middleton Hall was as stunning as ever.
I just loved the hound tied up outside the cafe. He had an endearing way of looking at you with his head to one side. He was muddy and wet and had clearly been having lots of fun.
The red and orange spiny, furry growth on the rose stem that looks like a ball of thread? That’s a robins pincushion or Diplolepis rosea – a gall formed, like the oak galls by a wasp.
I asked a few weeks ago why only the oak is bothered by wasp galls; it’s not only the oak, but mostly. Lime trees, conifers and roses suffer too. Here, a wasp lays 60 or so eggs in a tiny, developing leaf bud, surrounded in a chemical which causes the plant to mutate and grow this furry aberration, which is internally quite solid with cavities for the larva to hatch and feed.
Nature is quite horrific in it’s fascination sometimes. Find out more about this curious parasite here.
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