September 20th – The conkers have just started to fall, and I found these beauties in Lichfield. Like any British male, I have the conker acquisition instinct, and can’t pass one of these shiny nuts without popping it in my pocket.
This year I’m collecting them not just for guerrilla planting, but for a special cause. They seem in abundant supply, too, with a bumper crop.
They really bring out the kid in me.
August 30th – This time of year is mostly about fruits, and this year, there are no shortage. Another fine crop of walnuts in Wall, possibly the best yet. Conkers were growing big and fat at Weeford village hall, and reships glisten orange by the waysides. At the Bourne Brook near Thickbroom, the Himalayan basal is beautiful, but chocking out the other pants, notably purple loosestrife. In Shenstone churchyard, prickly sweet chestnuts fascinate.
Painful as autumn is, heralding the oncoming darkness, it is such a beautiful season.
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?
September 30th – Once you get used to the idea (and it does take me a good while to do so), Autumn is beautifully enjoyable. The colours are astounding. Everything from fallen conkers, to bright orange berries, to golden leaves and dew-collecting spiderwebs makes it beautiful to be riding right now.
All on one short section of road on an industrial estate.
August 26th – The day was better, I guess, by virtue of being dry, but when I set out for a tentative ride mid-afternoon it was cold, and a harsh wind blew. It wasn’t a bad October day, I thought.
I’m taking it easy. My foot isn’t completely better, and I thought I’d see how far I could push it before embarking on longer rides again. I looped up to Chasewater, then down to Wall, through Chesterfield and Hilton, back to Lower Stonnall, then home. Apart from a bit of toe-burn, not too bad.
What did impress was the fruits I saw. A terrific year for large, plump conkers; the tree at Edial between Burntwood and Pipe Hill is laden, and although suffering leaf miner damage, has a huge crop this year. In a few weeks standing at that bus stop could be hazardous.
At Wall, the walnut tree has a crop too. After finding it last year, I didn’t expect it to fruit this year too, but it has, with the lime-like ripening walnuts hanging from the boughs. I picked up a few windfalls, which were firm and large. When ripe, the green husks will split to reveal the more familiar brown nut inside. That’s if any survive the squirrels.
The Walnut tree also seems to have some kind of leaf miner activity. There are ‘blisters’ on some of the otherwise healthy, waxy leaves. I wonder what the bug is?
July 15th – This journal illustrates many things, but mostly, it illustrates my ignorance.
Three weeks hence I stopped to admire this horse chestnut tree in Festival Gardens, Lichfield, and noted how fine it was looking, laden with young fruit, and that it was showing hardly any leaf miner activity.
It is now. The leaves have been absolutely infested with it.
The leaf miner is a pain – it can cause early leaf fall and there’s speculation that this tiny moth larvae can cause poor fruit development, but otherwise, this infestation doesn’t affect the overall health of the tree. It just makes the poor thing look terribly diseased.
Next time, I’ll keep my mouth shut. Can’t help feeling I cursed my poor arboreal brother…
September 18th – Conkers. Every man I know is inexorably drawn to the shiny fruit every autumn, it’s almost an instinct to pick a few up if you see them. This splendid tree is at Festival Gardens in Lichfield, and the conkers are just starting to fall. This year, they’re small – I’m not sure if it’s just this tree, or general, but there are lots to come; the boughs are heavy with the spiny-husked horse chestnuts.
The tree is clearly suffering the ubiquitous leaf miner parasite, but it large and handsome, all the same. I gathered a couple of pocketfuls, and tossed them near Wall Butts on the way back.
October 14th – At the junction of Woodhouses Road and Lichfield Road at Edial, near Burntwood, there’s an imperious horse chestnut tree, and this season it has fruited in abundance. I have never seen so many conkers littering the ground. I mentioned my love of the brown, shiny nuts a week or so ago. I just had to stop and take a few home. Just instinct.
October 6th – Just by Festival Gardens, on Queen Street in Lichfield, screech the bike to a halt. Fallen treasure! The conker collection instinct is as strong in me now as it was when I was a child. I don’t think any red-blooded British male can pass a fallen horse chestnut without thinking twice. There’s something about that shiny brown nut in a soft, but spiny husk that’s just wonderful.
Ah, I remember when love was nothing but a handful of sticky conkers. Come to think of it, it hasn’t changed much…
August 7th – I noted today with some sadness that the horse chestnut trees in St. Johns Hill in Shenstone, and the ones forming the avenue and hedges along Hollyhill Lane towards Footherley were badly affected this year by the leaf miner moth. The tree survives this new pest, but starts to look sick around late summer, and drops it’s leaves early. It’s thought to affect the conker yeild, although there’s no conclusive proof of this yet. First observed in Wimbledon, London, in 2002, this pest has spread like wildfire, and as yet, there’s no sign of a solution. Very sad.
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