Tag: trees

October 5th – Still feeling rotten, I slipped past the border guards and spun through the principality, entering via the Cannock Extension Canal. At Pelsall Junction, the old tonnage house has been up for sale for a bit and I assume from recent clearance works that it’s been sold. It’ll make an interesting house, but living there could present challenges, especially for access.

The canal, commons and trees looked beautiful on a grey and dismal afternoon, which despite an occasionally interesting sky, was thoroughly uninspiring.

A ride that was better than expected, to be honest.

September 16th – We’re in a real Indian summer at the moment – back to cycling around without a coat, with the sleeves rolled up. The sun has been shining, and the soft, mist-suffused light – particularly in the afternoons – has been a joy to the soul.

Autumn isn’t far away, though; the trees are turning, and when the sun goes down, there’s a distinctive nip in the air my chest and bones recognise only too well.

Here on the Lichfield Road at Walsall, the atmosphere and colour were gorgeous. I love how the trees are sculpted on the underside by  the double decker busses that regularly pass under their boughs.

This has been a great season, and a good year. 

September 2nd – I will continue to rave about the beauty of Darlaston until I have convinced the whole world how wonderful it is.

Passing through Victoria Park and past the Police Station having been knocked off course by the resurfacing, I noted the lady, content in the warm sun, lost to the world reading a book under the bolt-tree sculpture. The Police station is still a gorgeous building, and it’s leafy surrounds are the perfect setting.

It seems a world away from the Black Country, but at the same time, it’s close to the heart of it.

This is the Darlaston and Black Country I adore.

August 7th – I had to nip into Brum on my way home from work, and hopped on a train to Shenstone on the way back. I haven’t been this way much lately, and the familiar wooded hill with church tower – just the one in summer, the other being obscured by trees – looked splendid in the early evening sunshine. I love how you can see the gargoyles at the vertices from a very long way away.

The station and it’s complex, partially mansard roof is still gorgeous, too, despite being neutered of it’s tall, elegant chimneys several decades ago.

Shenstone is gorgeous, and there are few better places to be on a warm, sunny evening.

August 6th – Riding back through Walsall on a warm summer evening, you realise this is the best time of year to see it; the trees around Hatherton Street, Lichfield Street and the poncily named ‘Civic Quarter’ are absolutely wonderful. People run Walsall down as being dirty, post-industrial and architecturally barren, but it’s one of the greenest pieces of urban landscape I’ve ever seen.

Beneath these trees, a town lives and breathes. 

If you don’t believe me, get somewhere high, like the New Art Gallery or St. Matthews steps on Church Hill, and look out. Walsall is a green oasis.

August 2nd – Still treating my injured foot with care, I took in a lazy loop of Brownhills and bimbled over to Chasewater, then back down the canal. It was a gorgeously sunny late afternoon, and after the heavy rains of the morning, all the greenery looked splendidly fresh.

In the space of 20 minutes, I admired the mature trees on The Parade, enjoyed the shimmer of Chasewater and watched spellbound as a wakeboarder practised his jumps. I also spotted the best garden chair-hammock thing ever, in a limpid, green arcadia beside the quiet, clear waters of the canal.

Don’t ever tell me there isn’t beauty in this place.

July 7th – Working late, I returned at sundown and winched my way up Shire Oak Hill from Sandhills. I noticed that lots of trees along here are laden with developing fruits – beach nuts, acorns, pine cones and these, unusually abundant sycamore seeds, or ‘helicopters’ as we used to call them as kids.

They seem to be already ripening – but this is only just the beginning of July. 

Am I imagining it, or are we heading for an early autumn?

June 25th – One the way to work today in Telford, I passed, as I usually do, a tall beech hedge. My attention was snagged by the bright, crisp red-green new growth, and the intensely geometric nature of these gorgeous leaves.

Each leaf different, but similar. Macro, and fascinating. Never really studied them before, but these were remarkable.

Funny the things you sometimes see afresh by chance.

June 19th – Passing through Lichfield today on my way home, I stopped by Festival Gardens to check out the conker trees. They seem to be in fairly good nick, and aren’t showing much leaf miner activity at the moment. They are, however, showing a huge amount of fruit.

I think it’s going to be another great year for conkers. The spiny cased nuts look almost prehistoric to me at this stage.