These, remarkably enough, are phone photos. How far technology has come…
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June 15th – With things online getting on top of me, I headed out at lunchtime on a much better day to find cake, sunshine and solace.
The sunshine was patchy, but lovely and I went to my old haunt of Hints Ford to see it after the rains. Green and peaceful as ever, there was much to see: I was particularly fascinated by the honeybee nest in the tree there.
Hints is as gorgeous as it ever was and I’ve missed it – I must try to get here more often.
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January 4th – In Kings Hill Park again at lunchtime heading for B&Q, I stopped to note that ostensibly, it was very much winter, and the park looked as darkly green and growthless as it always does at this time every year.
But wait up.
Stop and look, and honey fungus is growing in the grass – and bedgraggled daisies are still very much in bloom. But better than these side effects of a so far warm winter, the spring flowers are coming now: They have stirred in the death and are sending green shoots upwards.
Soon, there will be flowers.
My heart sang.
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December 26th – The Boxing Day weather was altogether better, but still somewhat grey and overcast with that keen wind. Again, bad weather was forecast for the evening, with heavy rain and even snow predicted.
I slipped out at lunchtime into a grey landscape, and was encouraged to find these bright honey fungus clumps growing on an tree stump on the Black Path.
Some days, the mere sight of something natural and bright is enough to improve your day.
May 21st – A much nicer day with warm sun and gentle southerly breeze. I headed out through Stonnall to Footherley, then Canwell, Hints, Tamworth and on the canal to Polesworth, returning via Orton on the Hill, Austrey, Clifton and Harlaston. A nice 60 miler.
We’re into summer now; the leaves are fully out, the air is alive with bugs, bees and birds, and pollen is the dominant scent. The countryside of Staffordshire and Leicestershire was beautiful, and I was pleased to note the honeybees still nest in the roof of Hints Church, as they have done for decades.
All topped off with a lovely sunset over Ogley Hay that showed St James Church beautifully.
Changeless, and beautiful.
October 20th – Spotted from the canal towpath as I zipped past, a forest of toadstools growing on a fallen log in the scrub at the back of Queen Street Cemetery in Walsall.
I think they might be honey fungus, but I’m not sure. There were hundreds of caps, all growing in clumps, feeding on the decaying wood. Ranging in colour from a dull weigh to a dark burnt umber, they were beautiful and fascinating.
Best crop of toadstools I’ve seen for a while.
June 18th – I passed through Hints late afternoon and stopped off at the church, as I always do. I was sad to note the churchyard looking so scruffy – it never used to be so overgrown, but the fact that it is is probably much better of the wildlife.
Talking of which, for as long as I’ve been coming here – 35 years or more – the south gable of the church has been hime to honeybees in summer, and this year is no different. The creatures swoop and buzz amongst the gravestones, and make an appreciable sound that fills the air.
I love to see them and the constancy of their annual return is a joy to the heart.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 