July 5th – I needed a break mid morning to have a think; so I slipped out of work on an errand and headed to Kings Hill Park, where I met this fellow.
This park has it’s share of cheeky grey squirrels, but this one was definitely posing for me. What a little star he is.
He didn’t help me with my train of thought, but he did provide some amusing light relief from it.
March 27th – Over in Kings Hill Park in Darlaston, there is a gorgeous p[atch of spring flowers that have been planted near the old chapel. All sorts of varied plants seem to be included and it really is rather delicate and beautiful.
Kings Hill Park – like many of Walsall’s green spaces – is a true joy to the heart in springtime, and I commend people who love this season to get out there and enjoy sights like this while they last.
March 16th – Also bursting forth now, a whole tranche of spring flowers in parks and gardens. I’ve no idea what these red and white globular ones are I spotted in Wednesbury, but that are absolutely gorgeous.
Despite not feeling well, the weather and nature have been doing their damnedest all week to cheer me up – which is welcome!
March 12th – I felt awful. Really bad, as if I had the mother and father of hangovers. I’d not had alcohol, and it could have been an MSG thing, but I was dehydrated and groggy. But I had to go out.
I called in at Shire Oak Park to check the frog pools to see if they’d mated there yet – if caught at the right time, that place is like toad soup but today, it was devoid of amphibia – but a heathy patch of spawn in each attested to the frog’s presence at some point.
I was interested in the difference in the frogspawn. I know that frogs produce globular ‘clumps’, and toads ribbons, but the frogspawn seemed to vary from the huge ones in my hand to tiny eggs the size of a small blackcurrant. I wonder why that is? Age and health of the female? Different types of frog?
Never noticed the variety in this stuff before.
March 2nd – As I said yesterday, the season of transition is upon me; and that includes the period of travelling – on good days, at least – in the golden hour.
I often talk about this magical time, when just approaching sunset the light becomes soft, suffused with pink and gold and changes everything it touches to a precious, rare jewel.
There are few better places to catch such a time than Kings Hill Park and the view of the Twin Sisters. Bathed in the evening sun, they looked even more majestic than usual, but so did the park, and the sunset on the way home along the canal wasn’t too shabby, either.
This’ll do.
February 28th – in the swamp at the end of Victoria Park in Darlaston, just past the old railway bridge on the way to Kings Hill, a surprise today in the rain: The blackthorn is flowering.
Always the earliest tree blossom, it’s a lovely sight and on this wet, miserable day I was so pleased to see it.
Interesting too to see the blackthorn bush with an alder growing intertwined around it.
February 22nd – Also in Kings Hill Park, I found this stripy fellow watching me with his one eye. I’ve never seen him before, and although he’s clearly been in the wars with the sight deficiency and the battered ear, he was a very proud, lithe chap whom I don’t think was very old at all.
I took this blurry photo, which although not well focussed gives you an idea of the cat. I instantly fell in love with him. Just look at that magnificent tail.
He didn’t hang about, and clearly had business to attend to. I do hope we meet again, hopefully when he’s feeling a bit friendlier…
February 22nd – It was a grim, wet morning commute and I wasn’t in the best of moods. I decided to cheer myself up by calling into Kings Hill Part to check on the progress of the miniature daffodils and other spring flowers.
I wasn’t disappointed, and spotted with raindrops, they looked fresh, vital and beautiful.
I left in a considerably better frame of mind.
February 17th – I came through Kings Hill Park again around mid-day – and this time, crested the ‘hill’ itself, which is a beautiful, peaceful oasis that would have commanding vies of the area were it not surrounded by lovely, mature trees – which is a bit of a dilemma, really.
I noticed here the bench in memory of Jake Wilkes, sadly lost in 2008, and clearly still well loved and tended, and also the first miniature daffodils of the year, which grow in abundance down beside the old chapel.
A lovely spot that’s just right for a contemplative 10 minutes away from the hassle of work.
February 16th – On a misty, hazy mild and sunny lunchtime I crossed Kings Hill Park on a quick run out and stopped to gaze at Church Hill and the twin sisters of Wednesbury.
The view changes subtly though the years – new buildings replace old ones, trees grow and are felled, factories and buildings like the old Carcraft site fall in and out of use.
But overseeing all, those twin, beautiful spires, watching their industrial, urban flocks for over a century each.
This is a view that never ages.
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