Tag: Jockey Meadows

June 11th – I had to pop into work late afternoon, and as sun tried to break through the generally overcast day, I stopped to look for my mates the coos at Jockey Meadows. 

At first, I thought they’d gone again, but I could smell them. The muddy field was freshly churned after the rain. I looked carefully.

The workforce was busy. Deep in the scrub or the water meadow, they were here and there, doing what they do best. 

Grazing, steadily. Getting the job done.

May 31st – A bright spot in an atrocious, wet commute home was spotting that the coos have returned to Jockey Meadow in Walsall Wood – and by the look of the lush meadow there, they have their work cut out. 

Not that it seems hard work, browsing the bog for the juiciest grasses and shoots, and generally looking handsome. 

I love these guys. So nosey, so proud. Good to have my friends back.

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 25th – Awful commuting weather. On the way to work in the morning, I faced a grim wind and sharp, heavy shows. It was cold and I was missing waterproof trousers, so arrived at work damp and miserable. Similarly, on the way home I was caught in heavy rain, but this time there was a severe headwind. And between the squalls? Flashes of bright sunshine and dark, threatening skies.

April has proven a real challenge this year.

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.

April 8th – Coming through Jockey Meadows in Walsall Wood after a long, hard day at work, I realised that things here were just starting to green up for the new season. Often, this is the last place locally to shake of the drab shades of winter, but this year it seems a little quicker.

This unusual site of special scientific interest that stops Walsall Wood, Pelsall and Shelfield forming one huge sprawl is an odd hinterland, but I do love it so.

Wonder if the coos will be back this year?

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.

March 14th – So pleasant to be coming home in the light at last. Not so pleasant, several motorists today seemed to want me dead, which was a shock. People, check when you turn or change lanes, please.

The wind was very sharp, against me and I was cold, but the dusk falling over jockey meadows was beautiful, and it looked like a low bit was forming. 

It’ll be a while yet before the meadows green up for a new season, but right now, it’s enough that I can see them at all at gone six o’clock.

I note from sunrise and sunset times on the GPS that we’re approaching the equinox… it’ll be interesting to see when that occurs.

January 19th – A beautiful, hazy an sunny winter morning – chilly, but not bitter. It was dry, and the pleasure and speed of dry roads seemed alien to me after so many wet weeks. Jockey meadows were beautiful, as were The Butts in Walsall, with those gorgeous terraces. Even Darlaston’s 1930s factories with their stark, monolithic walls were a joy in the mellow January sun.

All this is great for my heart and soul. More, please!