April 17th – Awfully long range photos, but the group of deer were still on Jockey Meadows when I passed this evening – two stags and two does, looking very scruffy as they were heavily in moult.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that these animals now roam wild here. A fine sight.
March 15th – To compound a bad ride, I had to go up to Walsall Wood, and my beer magnet was at full power. Excellent, you might think. Fourteen reds in a loose group, on the field margin along the canal that borders Grange Farm, Walsall Wood. Largest group I’d seen for a while, and there were some impressive specimens.
Just one snag: there was a thin scrub-copse and barbed wire fence stopping me getting through the trees to get good photos. Immensely frustrating.
Aaargh!
March 11th – Quick photos grabbed in passing on a desperately murky evening, but there’s no mistaking the recently relocated, civically vandalised Walsall hippo. Now outside the library, publicity wonks working at the council decided it would be a bit of free and easy publicity to paint the concrete kiboko in a Walsall football strip to cash in on – sorry, celebrate – the recent success of Walsall Football Team, a sporting enterprise that in former, less successful times, was untroubled by civic attention.
The wonks this post prandial brainwave surely was – whose previous contact with paint technology is probably limited to spare rooms and nails – assure all and sundry the paint will wash off (presumably when sporting fortunes return to normal and disassociation is necessary) and that the stunt – sponsored by an unholy amalgam of tattoo parlour and home insurance company – is all in good taste.
Of course, seeing a football fan on the streets of Walsall, resplendent girth barely contained by team shirt is not unusual, and the footballing hippo is very representative, even more at home like this. But cast from cheap concrete worn porous with age, it’ll take some effort to expunge him from the red peril he finds himself in.
Of course, the duality of the civic position that graffiti is wrong has gone unnoticed, and it’s odd to see the insurance people back off the naughty step, but hey, this is Walsall.
And no, this sculpture has never been called ‘hoppy’ by anyone I’ve met, despite apparent attempts by the burghers to convince us otherwise.
Good luck to The Saddlers, though…
February 8th – Up at Chasewater, another sunny but hazy afternoon. The atmosphere was lovely, but the trails and cycleways were very, very muddy and the going quite hard. The deer didn’t seem to mind though, and a small group were on the wettest part of the north heath clearly enjoying the marsh.
January 26th – In the centre of Darlaston, at the other end of the day, one of the last of a breed. Outside Darlaston’s wonderfully imperious Post Office, a classic K6 telephone box, still with the light and a phone.
I’ve never noticed this one before, and the light within them always gives me a warm feeling inside. Years ago, riding through the countryside at night, the sight of that red frame and white light would be reassuring; contact, signs of life and connection in the darkness. I even waited in them for showers and storms to pass.
These days, this classic design is rare, and even rarer with a functioning phone and light.
I’ve just realised this is the second OMD reference on this journal in little over a week…
January 18th – For the first time in weeks, my deer magnet was on an working well. Crossing the north heath at Chasewater, I spotted a female red deer laying in the scrub by the fence, then as I approached, about seven others became evident, loafing in the scrub, including a young male. The were tolerant, co-operative and in no hurry to go anywhere. A lovely sight.
Turning to leave, I noted three darker reds up on the bank 100 metres away. They were more skittish, and I’m not convinced they were from the same herd… they certainly didn’t seem friendly with the ones on the lower pasture.
A brilliant sight on a great ride; how I love these graceful, peaceful animals and the fact that they roam wild in my hometown.
October 25th – I spotted them by chance as I shot down Church Street in Chasetown – the were on the mown grass in the little park next to the school. Four red deer ladies, out for their constitutional, and looking maybe for the odd carrot.
The were awfully tolerant and posed for me happily for ages. They’re clearly very used to people being around.
The look in good health, and fine condition. So good to see them after not seeing any for ages – they’re beautiful animals.
September 3rd – Arum Maculatum is a common sight in hedgerows and woods at this time of year. Known variously as Wild arum, Lords and Ladies, Devils and Angels, Cows and Bulls, Cuckoo-Pint, Adam and Eve and even Naked Boys, it’s a very unusual plant which sheds it’s foliage before fruiting leaving a 6 to 12 inch high column of bright orange-red berries. These berries are highly poisonous and this is the plant responsible for most hospital admissions due to accidental ingestion in the UK.
The berries contain a toxin which makes the oral tract tingle, and causes sickness and swelling of the throat. Always avoid touching it, although the temptation to do so us great, it has an almost artificial appearance that renders it grimly fascinating.
What always worries me about this plant is that it’s at a perfect height, and so brightly attractive, that young kids may be drawn to it. What yours if you’re out walking.
This example is growing, along with lots of others, on the riverbank near the Arrow Valley cycle path in Redditch.
April 23rd – First time my deer magnet has been switched on for weeks. Just over Jockey Meadows, 200 metres or so from the site of the flytipping in the last post, two red deer hinds. One older than the other, both wathced me nervously from right at the bottom of the field, near the brook. These are very long-range photos, so apologies for the poor quality.
Both ladies were in the moult, so looked a bit threadbare, but otherwise appeared healthy enough. I think they’re part of a larger herd that loafs in the scrub there.
Nice to see them, and a sign as to why we need to look after our vital green spaces like Jockey Meadows and work against the kind of environmental damage caused by the flytipping shown in the previous post.
December 8th – I really didn’t know what to do with these photos. I spotted the deer in their usual place, but the unusually strong sunset made the images – which were quite long exposure due to poor light – an odd pink colour. I tried fiddling with the colour balance, but that’s not me and I’m not good at that stuff, so I made them black and white.
There were lots of deer about today; I saw fallows on the Chase at Shooting Butts, Lady Hill and Pepper Slade, but the photography was so very poor. It was also poor at Brownhills Parade, where I passed a large Red Deer stag and his harem in darkness at 5pm, loafing by the roadside.
Watch out for the deer if you’re driving locally. There isn’t a whole bunch of road sense, or any sense at all for that matter, in your average Red Deer…
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