July 26th – The harvest started a few days before the weather broke yesterday, bringing it to a juddering halt – I note some bales in fields now, but mostly the combine harvester hasn’t been around much yet.
This field of wheat at Sandhills looks mostly ready now, but look closely at those plump ears and there’s still a fair way to go yet.
Hopefully, the current damp spell will pass quickly and the harvest can continue before mould sets in.
July 25th – In Rushall, a couple of apple trees have fruit growing well on the boughs right now. Some looks better than others, depending I think on if frost caught the blossom or not.
It’s not the largest harvest I’ve ever seen, but it’s big. It’s going to be a decent year for apples and pears, I think.
July 7th – Summer’s wheel continues to turn, despite the poor weather, and I was shocked today to note that the rowan berries on the trees by the cycleway in Pelsal were beginning to ripen.
One of the earlier berries of the summer, they add a lovely splash of orange colour to the maturing greenery of high summer.
With days now getting shorter, it really feels like the year is advancing fast now.
August 26th – Returning late in a glorious golden hour, I stopped to look at Jockey Meadows, as I hadn’t done so for a while. The coos are long gone, and the harvest done and dusted, and the countryside here is wearing an autumnal jacket, everything in the late summer slumber that pervades this time of year.
The days are cooler, and drawing in. I’m going to be controversial here, but I don’t think it’s been a bad old summer.
August 15th – Returning by train because I was short of time, I cycled from Blake Street through the backlanes of Footherley and Stonnall on a beautiful, slightly chilly evening. My energy reserves were very low, and the ride was hard going, which can only have been due to the recent ill-health.
Still, the sun set fire a glorious golden hour and the fields were rendered beautiful. Even the horse chestnuts hit by leaf miners were gorgeous in the late sunlight.
Is that autumn’s breath I can feel on my shoulder?
August 10th – A return on a gorgeously languid summer evening, along the canal and then the cycleway to Pelsall. On my return, I spotted the wheat crop at High Heath, surely ripe now, and on the verge of going over.
Soon be harvesting that, I guess. But in the meantime, what a gorgeous view. The is north Walsall, folks.
August 8th – From Seven Springs I headed down onto the canal at Weetmans Bridge near Little Haywood, as far as Breretonhill, then back through Upper Longdon and Stoneywell. The canal was glorious on a golden evening, and I drifted lazily past narrowboats, clumps of Himalayan balsam and waterside gardens that were enchanting. At Longdon, I see the refurbishment of the windmill continues well, after seemingly being stalked for ages.
As I came through Stoneywell the dying sun caught the have step fields and rendered them precious.
July 30th – Coming home from Shenstone, I noticed the harvest had started at Lynn, and the grain trailers were filling, clouds of corn-dust blowing over the fields and that familiar scent in the air.
At Sandhills, the first blackberries ripen by the roadside, while the oats at Home Farm have already been harvested. Interestingly, when I took the photo of Ogley Hay church over the fields, I didn’t spot the red deer in shot…
July 19th – Oats are in fashion this year. After years of barely seeing any at all, this year all the best-dressed arable farms are wearing them.
I’m seeing them all over the place – the price, or subsidy for them must be high this year. They are a beautiful golden colour at the moment, and are painting the fields in shades of high summer.
These at Home Farm seem to be ready for harvest.
July 17th – I had to pop down to Shenstone on my way home; on my return through the backlands I noticed something that had largely been passing me by of late; the crops in the fields are now ripening, and the harvest cannot be far away.
At Footherly, a field of nice, plump wheat is turning golden in the July warmth. The clean, milky-tasting grain will, if the weather continues to be reasonable, make great flour.
Nice to see.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 