November 13th – Working late, I popped out to close the gates as night fell over a quiet Darlaston. I’d either just missed a brilliant sunset, or one had been trying to break through the clouds.
Either way, the urban horizon looked utterly beautiful.
November 2nd – Further on my way to work, I caught something out of the corner of my eye n a patch of roadside verge grass. On the neatly mown turf were lots of one of my favourite toadstools – the delicate and very short lived Japanese Parasol. With a delicate crinkled cap no larger than a two pound coin and a very slight stature, these pretty little fungi will be gone without trace within a day.
These are a wonderfully fragile, transient beauty and I’m so glad to have seen them this year.
October 31st – Passing down the Darlaston Road to Wednesbury over Kings Hill, you realise that the area is changing. While it’s still very industrial, a couple of the old, large factories here have been replaced by new build housing.
The old Exidoor factory that made panic bolts was lost to apartments some years ago, and over the last couple of years, a pleasant enough, but unremarkable estate has grown on the site of the former Servis domestic appliance factory pretty much next door.
Servis was a household name, started by nearby power press manufacturer Wilkins and Mitchell who are also now gone; they made passable washing machines and the like which were functional, and often very innovative (The Servis Quartz was the first ever electronically controlled automatic washing machine) but suffered from poor quality and reliability.
Gradually outsold and outclassed by competitors due to the traditional British twin failures of lack of investment and corner cutting, Servis fell from UK ownership to various international owners before finally collapsing.
The works, which once even had it’s own brass band, fell silent, was demolished, the ground reclaimed, and now houses sprout from where the ground once shook under the blow of heavy presses.
Such is the story across modern Britain. We are in the middle of great change.
October 30th – On my return, I popped into Kings Hill Park since it was such a beautiful afternoon. There was nobody around, peace reigned – apart from the normal industrial sounds of Darlaston living and breathing, which is a sort of background music to me now – and the only activity was from Mrs. Squirrel here, checking me out for food.
Sore from the hospital and feeling weary after the ride, I sat and thought, had a snack and something to drink, and gently recharged in my nowhere garden.
The park looks even better in it’s current cloak of autumn, with beautiful flowers still in bloom and the leaves turning so prettily.
This is one of the gems of the Black Country, yet what tour guide ever mentions Kings Hill Park? What guidebook ever dared to breathe the name?
This is just our peaceful, beautiful secret. And I love it so.
October 20th – And in the green heaven of Kings Hill Park, where clearly busy people tend the flowers unseen to me, a bright, colourful reminder that the beauty isn’t over yet.
Spotted with raindrops, battered by the wind, these planters are still absolutely gorgeous and remind me of why I love the outdoors and why I appreciate this town and it’s hidden, lovely spaces.
I’m BrownhillsBob, not DarloDave. But for a twist of fate, I could have been – and would have been proud to be so.
October 20th – In to work early, and on a morning of patchy rain and light, fast sunny spells, two pauses in my hurried journey at Victoria Park and Kings Hill Park, both looking absolutely gorgeous in their autumn jackets.
Darlaston is a grubby, grimy industrial Black Country town – and is everything the Black Country is; busy, historic, full of hidden beauty under an ostensibly ugly exterior, charming, real and a great place to be. And like the wider Black Country, it’s full of green parks and open spaces where the hurried traveller can catch a breath, sip his tea and think about the day to come.
October 11th – Spotted on the way to work, again on the rich, undisturbed grass of an industrial estate verge, some kind of tricholomo – probably dingy. These medium sized, grey and almost downy toadstools were really pretty in their way and I’ve not seen them before.
Every year seems to throw up new fungi to me. I love to find them and puzzle over what they might be.
October 3rd – I’d forgotten my camera, I was heading home late and flustered, what an unfortunate time to witness an astonishing sunset.
Looking from Kings Hill west to Wolverhampton, across the ether the cellphone mast silently talks endlessly to, the sky was bright crimson, rippled and utterly stunning.
And the phone didn’t capture it at all. Bugger.
Ah well, there will be other sunsets that hopefully, catch me better equipped.
September 13th – Spotted on the footpath on a Wednesury industrial estate, these giant pine cones. Weighing in I’d guess at half a pound in weight, they’re actually quite sharp and abrasive and I’d not want one to land on my head as it fell from the tree.
Remarkable things, and lots of them; like conkers, at this time of year falling harvests can be the only decent reason to wear a helmet…
August 31st – This week has been difficult as I’ve been in work very early and out very late, so stopping for photos has been a bit difficult, so I apologise for the limited range in the last couple of days.
On my way to work – thankfully still in daylight, despite the early hour – passing through Kings Hill I noted a lovely, lithe ginger puss, who meowed and wanted fuss. As I reached for the camera, this clearly very busy individual spotted something worth stalking the other side of a factory years fence, squeezed through and was off.
I hope we meet again – that’s a handsome tail for sure!
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