June 23rd – Always nice to see the bindweed in flower. Another plant ignored as a weed of the fringes and wastelands, this prolific member of the Convolvulus family has beautiful flowers if you take a closer look, and very nearly pure white too.
It’s common from mid summer until autumn, supports a whole range of bugs and Lepidoptera and is one of those plants our hedgerows would be very much duller without.
May 23rd – I’m glad to say the sun and warm weather over the last few days has rejuvenated a blossom I thought had died this year with barely a whimper; laburnum or golden chain began flowering weeks ago, but petered out, I assume due to the climate.
Today, it was bright, lush and clear, and one can see why it was planted so much in the postwar years – a truly beautiful blossom. Sadly, the seed pods are very, very toxic and after several child poisonings by ingestion, many of these beautiful trees were cut down for public safety.
Those that remain though – especially examples like this one planted to contrast with neighbouring species at Shelfied – are very, very beautiful.
May 22nd – A long time since I featured Jockey Meadows here – the Site of Special Scientific Interest lying on wetland between Walsall Wood and Shelfield.
Usually the last bit of local landscape to green up, it’s looking splendidly fresh and verdant in the sun, possibly because the annual occupancy by a heard of meadow-maintaining cows haven’t appeared yet.
I notice someone’s come in here with a tractor recently though, which is interesting.
A beautiful and very important place!
March 8th – Another somewhat unusual sign of more clement weather was spotted in SHelfield this morning. Going just on the edge of a front garden on the A461, glistening ink cap toadstools.
Not seen any since last autumn – things must be improving.
Seems the warmth is waking everything up!
December 20th – In Shelfield, a reminder of the season. The holly, unlike the cotoneaster, is profuse this year, and every bush I see has the most perfect, shiny, plastic looking leaves.
The bright berries are cheering and a delight on a grey morning.
Only two days to go!
November 29th – A dreamy, icy, freezing morning that turned my breath to clouds of steam and air that hurt the back of my throat, all in glorious, glorious hazy sunshine. Utterly beautiful and it’s made me fall in love with winter again.
About time, too.
Jockey Meadows, between Walsall Wood and Sheffield were gorgeous, from the low mist to the horses grazing peacefully; I noted signs had been put up by local police requesting folk keep an eye out for wildlife crime, which is excellent. We all need to be vigilant.
The beauty continued into Walsall where the canals were the same as they ever were; a quiet, glorious commuting byway.
I’m so lucky to live here and be able to enjoy it.
October 13th – Have you had a new bathroom fitted lately? Does your house now look splendid and fresh? Great.
Sadly, if you paid a chancer to remover the rubbish, it’s now in Green Lane, on the Walsall Wood/Shelfield border in a field gateway, because you were too cheap to pay fro proper waste disposal, or they were.
Since the partial closure of Green Lane for sewage repair works last week, the lane has been blighted with such flytipping.
If you paid someone to dump this stuff, you could be prosecuted on the same basis as the flytipper., because under the law giving waste to an unlicensed carrier incurs the same penalty as fly tipping.
The other possibility is you dumped it yourself. In which case you’re beneath contempt.
There’s a lot of packaging in there. Hope none of it has your address on it.
September 7th – Spotted on the way home, two deer, mom and daughter in the fields near Jockey Meadows, between Walsall Wood and Sheffield.
Very comfortable and relaxed, momma was browsing the crop stubble while her offspring ran around and had high jinks at the field margin.
Lovely to see, shame they weren’t closer…
August 16th – A consolation of leaving work late was a very beautiful, deep sunset. With the cooling temperatures, earlier nightfall and climatic change of Autumn, we’ll soon be in the season of the great sunset again, one of the greatest consolations for the end of summer.
It was lovely tonight but I’d rather summer fought off the autumn a little longer yet…
July 12th – Meanwhile, at Jockey Meadows, the coos are getting stuck in, browsing the scrub and spreading the cowpat love. I’m fascinated in their behaviour; they tend to operate in a loose group, and move to different parts of the pasture at different times of day. It’s almost as if they know they have a job to do, and are carefully, conscientiously doing it.
I love these gentle, charming beasts.
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