September 25th – The day did have some things to commend it though, As dusk fell a mist was rising off the canal at Clayhnager bridge and in it’s dark way, it looked serene and beautiful.
I’m not really ready for winter but there’s nothing I can do about it now, so I guess I must find beauty where I can.
September 21st – As I neared Brownhills, a beautiful violet-red sunset formed over Jockey Meadows and Clayhanger.
The sky and low cloud mad the whole thing etereal and ghostly, and the dying light made all rosy and soft.
I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.
September 21st – Returning home after a long day through north Walsall I caught a gorgeous, soft golden hour.
We are in the season of great sunsets and tonight, this was just a warm up for better to come.
There are positive aspects to autumn, you just have to be open to them.
September 19th – I had to visit Telford and when I arrived late morning it was still quite misty with a soft, suffused sunlight. The cycleways and views of the new town are beautiful at this time of year in the right light and it’s one of the good things about autumn.
So nice to see a familiar place wearing such a pretty jacket, even if it does mean the end of the green for another year…
September 18th – Riding through the backstreets of central Walsall, it’s getting distinctly autumnal. I keep thinking it’s too early, but then, we’re very nearly two thirds into September now, so I suppose not.
Here on the corner of Charles Street it looked lovely, and not having been here for many years, it’s changed a bit, too. Last time I was here the flats on the left didn’t exist and there was a row of Victorian factories in some decay. I remember well a cafe here I used to use a fair bit.
Ah well, nothing stays the same and time keeps moving on.
September 15th – A bad day in many ways, when not much seemed to go to plan. It wasn’t very bad, just loads of minor irritations – and the weather; occasionally sunny and deceptively warm, but at other times almost painfully chilly, as if winter’s fingers were starting to get their grip on things.
The first tinges of the oncoming cold and dark are always the hardest, and this year they’ve come a lot sooner that I expected – but we have kind of got used to Indian summers in recent years, so perhaps this is a return to normal.
I came back from work in heavy, intemperate traffic having to make a call near Streets Corner, and all the while the skies to the south were showing evil intent.
When I got home, mercifully before the rain came – I realised how glad I was to be back.
Some days, home is the best place to be.
September 14th – Further on, still nestling in green, the countryside of Stonnall is beautiful. The harvest is largely over, with just maize and potatoes left in the fields, and the machinery one now sees in the lanes is for ploughing, harrowing and seeding. Near Stonnall itself, the oilseed rape fields are already growing a new crop.
And so, the seasonal wheel turns. As the cold, darkness and winter come on, these fields will slumber until reawakening in spring. It’s all part of the cycle, and the cycle is round.
It’s not been a bad summer. Just wish it had been longer…
September 14th – A real sign of autumn, my first conker finds of the season, and this year it looks like there’s a large, voluminous crop waiting to fall to earth.
This tree, spotted in the backlanes of Stonnall was laden, and the fruit fresh from the husk as beautiful and shiny as ever one could wish, despite the tree being hard-hit by leaf miner.
Like most men, there is an inbuilt genetic urge to collect fallen conkers and I still can’t pass them in the road without popping a few in my pocket.
September 13th – Also falling from trees now and altogether less of a hazard are the knopper galls, the genetically mutated acorn-cum-insect-cocoons that are bastardised from the normal oak fruit by the knopper wasp.
These seemingly dead, spent galls will most likely have larva inside them and they will overwinter in the fallen galls before boring their way out in spring – although those dropping in vulnerable positions like these on the footpath will be lost under feet, cycle tyres and to the wind and elements.
It’s not until you think about it you realise what a high rate of attrition there is with such things – just how many larva are lost and how this must affect the fecundity of the knopper wasp as a species.
Remarkable how they survive at all.
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…
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