August 7th – Also showing a good, plump and juicy crop this year are the blackberries, so profuse at the moment, everywhere I go they’re so ripe they’re falling off the brambles. I see plenty of folks picking them, but there are just so many.
If you’re a crumble fan, get out there. These wonderful fruits are fee and so sweet and tasty this year.
August 7th – One of the surprises of the summer for me has been the surprisingly bountiful harvest of many berries, nuts and fruits: I would have thought that the dry spell would have meant fruit was more sparse.
Elderberries are a case in point. I think the fruit may eventually be smaller, but there is a huge quantity ripening in the warm sun. These are all in Victoria Park, Darlaston where the bushes are absolutely laden.
Going to be a good year for home wine-makers aI think.
August 5th – Rding over to Screwfix in Walsall Wood, I passed the swan family who were loafing on the canal near the rear of Lindon Drive but clearly vaguely heading somewhere.
I suppose soon they’ll move into the main flock on Chasewater until next season when they return to breed again.
I haven’t seen much of the family this year, out paths haven’t crossed much, but it’s so nice to see them.
We never had this locally when I was a kid. It still amazes me.
August 4th – A weary but lovely ride out in the afternoon was hard going for the first 30 miles, but really picked up as the day cooled.
I’d wanted to visit Mancetter and ride Salt Street/Roe House Lane for most of the summer, and possibly after a hard week at work this wasn’t the best day for it – but the sun was lovely and I headed out through Canwell, Carroway Head, Middleton, Middlon Lakes, Whitacre Heath, Foul End, Mancetter, Sheepey, Twycoss and No Man’s Heath, returning via Clifton, Harlaston and Whittington.
Salt Street was as wonderful as it ever was at sunset, and the clouds of dust drifting across the landscape from harvesting caught the golden light beautifully.
The harvest continued well into the night after dark fell right across South Staffordshire and made for a real, end of Sumer feel although hopefully that’s a long way away yet.
August 1st – I’ve been enjoying watching the progress of the berries and fruits this year, perhaps more than usual. Mainly I think because with the hot, dry weather I expected the harvest to be very poor, yet it’s far from meagre. Most things seem abundant, and it looks like being a good winter for birds with a bumper crop of haws reddening gradually in the hawthorn thickets and hedges.
These tough, hard berries are a good winter food for many birds, loaded with energy but bitter so they aren’t depleted quickly.
Grandad used to say and abundance of berries meant nature was preparing for a harsh winter.
It’ll be interesting to see if he was right.
July 31st – Passing over Catshill Junction on my way home, I stopped to note that it was as beautiful as ever it was, but in this late, hot summer the colours have gone from the bright, verdant green of spring to a baked gold colour, browns and dusty, jaded green. These are more than the colours of a mature summer; they are the colours of an unusually hot, dry season.
I’ve never in adulthood seen a summer like this, and I’ll be surprised should I do so again. It has been absolutely marvellous.
July 31st – One thing I am noticing this year is the huge fruit harvest. From blackberries to pears, from rowan berries to crab apples the hedgerows and woods this year are offering a wonderful bounty.
This crab apple tree near Clayhanger is burdened with a massive amount of apples that will sadly rot on the ground – not enough people making hedgerow jelly or wine these days I guess.
July 30th – Working late at a remote site, I came back through Birmingham and Shenstone to hit the homeward commute just as a beautiful sunset unfolded across the landscape.
One of the joys of late summer is it’s the season of the sunset, and it was a cracker. There were the earliest hints in the way the sinking, golden sun caught the thick, rolling clouds, and it ended in a banded crimson sky that made the homecoming skyline of Ogley Hay magical.
I’m so glad I caught this.
July 27th – A journey to Burntwood on the way home, and I noticed that the hills of Hammerwich were now stubble too. This view is changeless yet ever-changing, and it fascinates me.
A real slice of home.
July 26th – The very hot weather seems to be coming to an end, timing almost perfectly with the end of the major session of the harvest. Locally now for a couple of weeks, the grumble and whine of fantastically large and complex harvesting machinery has been a continual backing track to rural life, and often I’ve ridden through clouds of wheat dust from this year’s crop being threshed in the harvester.
Not much spilled this year, which is interesting, the roads are usually thick with spilled grain, called ‘gleanings’ as traditionally workers and the poor were allowed to collect – glean – this harvest bounty and they’d feed it to their animals and fowl.
Interesting also to note the return of the rectangular bale. Well, they do stack better.
And with harvest and the end of the heatwave, the year gallops on…
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