November 18th – Another gorgeous, but bitterly cold late autumn morning, and the oaks near Clayhanger were showing their autumn explosion of colour beautifully against an azure sky.
It’s been a very tough week, with very long hours again. I’m tired, and aching and mentally spent. But sights like this feel me with positivity and joy counteracting the hours I’ve spend riding in the darkness.
Winter is long, and still to come. But I think I can get through this.
November 4th – The autumn colours were great this morning. When I started my ride to work, it was in semi darkness and drizzle; by the time I got there it was sunny, with clear blue skies.
Looking up in Darlaston’s Kings Hill Park through a canopy of yellow orange leaves, it felt good to be alive, to be there in the here and now.
It happened every year. I dread the onset of Autumn, and the wily old devil charms me to love in the end.
It was ever thus.
November 2nd – I was lucky to pass through Darlaston tonight as the sun set, and the view over the landscape – today, a genuinely black Black Country – was beautiful; once, this view would have been marked by chimneys, stacks and furnaces; this evening, house lights, clear air and the glow of sodium discharge made the urban sprawl look like glowing embers of a fire that caught the clouds alight.
Watching on, like a sentry, the cellphone tower; constant, contracted, monitoring, trading it’s hundreds of concurrent conversations with the ether.
And there I stood, camera in hand, caught for a moment in ideas of technological progress and the beauty of the place I love.
October 26th – The gorgeous and remarkable sunsets also continue. Again, coincidentally passing near Shenstone, I caught an astoundingly dramatic mackerel sky sunset that lasted all of 15 minutes before it disappeared.
As I left Shenstone station, there were hints in the sky to the west, and as I cycled home, I watched the shy intensify until it almost seemed to catch fire.
Then, by the time I got to Stonewall, all trace had disappeared from the sky and dusk was falling.
And yes, I do love the drama and geometry of pylons, and what better backdrop than a stunning sunset?
October 20th – Heading home along the canal through Pleck, another of those rare treats: a rainbow.
It hadn’t rained here that I was aware of and I guess someone in east Walsall was getting an unexpected shower.
Hadn’t seen any for ages, and this is the third this month. You can’t beat a good rainbow.
October 12th – Cycling home after an unexpected, sudden shower, I was surprised to note that for a few brief minutes there was a rainbow over Walsall.
Like the rain itself, completely unexpected, but a wonderful thing I was glad to witness, and made up for the awful road conditions.
September 29th – A long morning involving a trip to Telford with a stop off at Tipton on the way. I set out in a damp, windy landscape, but there was clearly a better day on the way and the clearing weather lifted my grim mood.
Passing Grove Hill on the Chester Road at Stonnall, the sky was neatly divided between day and night, clear and cloud, bad weather and good.
And the light, clear, fine day was winning.
September 27th – It was clear when I left work that there was going to be a good sunset, and it reached it’s peak just as I hit Brownhills. An absolutely stunning sundown, I haven’t seen the like for a good while – the sky appeared to be on fire, with the dying red light reflected on the underside of mackerel clouds.
A great benefit of the shortening of the day is riding home in sunsets like these.
September 25th – A windy, wolfish day with lots of sun and a few showers. Riding wasn’t so great – I was still short of energy, but on the other hand it was beautiful to see the rainbow form over Hammerwich just after the rain passed through.
It’s been ages since I saw one this vivid.
August 16th – No wildlife today, sadly; I had hoped to carry the seven days of wildlife challenge on further than the week, but I saw nothing of interest in that department today – at least, nothing that stayed around long enough to give good camera face. So I made do with the moon.
It was full and beautiful this evening, and what a night to look up at it and ponder the wonderful feat of travelling there, given the technology of the day.
The moon will never lose it’s romance.
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