October 19th – A puzzle. I found this flower growing from the brickwork at the canal edge in Walsall. It’s clearly day-like, but not a daisy. But it’s delicate and very, very lovely.
My curiosity was piqued by the colour. In the soft autumnal sunlight it appeared to be a very, very light purple or pink. But I can’t actually tell for sure.
Any ideas?
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October 17th – On the way to work, I stopped for a break in Victoria Park, Darlaston – the park curiously formed from a railway cutting abandoned in the 1930s.
It’s always beautiful here in Autumn and today, the trees were just shrugging on their seasonal jackets of gold.
Victoria park is a great example of how urban edge land with a peculiar topology can be repurposed into a beautiful and well loved place, that’s always restful and a real oasis in the heart of a busy town.
I’ll never tire of this place.
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October 17th – One of the things that makes me happy in autumn is the parting of ways of that year’s cygnets and their parents. Gradually, as winter closes in, that year’s clutch are gradually pushed away by the parents who still keep a loose family group but won’t tolerate the young too close.
This gradual transition into adulthood is visible about now as you meet lone cygnets like this one, hustling for treats on the canal in walsall, a few hundred yards from its parents.
For once I had some corn and it ate like they always do, like tit had never had food before.
Soon, it’ll join the main local flocks and will spend a few years socialising before pairing off and the family cycle continuing.
Another successful year for the local swans.
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October 8th – Returning from Birmingham, caught suddenly in a shower on the platform at New Street Station, I was fascinated by the darkening of the sky, then the light catching the buildings as the end was in sight.
In all the mad, frenetic urban landscape, I love the power it still maintains to capture the light beautifully.
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October 3rd – I drove to work and rode home – sadly I chose a really, really unpleasant evening to do so. Again, drizzle and a punishing headwind – but at least the town looked beautiful in the glistening, dripping night.
I decided to quickly try the camera and the phone for a comparison.
Top, the iPhone 11 Pro Max in night mode, which since a beta firmware upgrade on Wednesday evening seems a whole bunch better. It’s not as hyperreal, but is still very strange, but beautiful I think.
My preference is still to the warmth of the Canon G5X, below, which is altogether mellower without losing detail.
Further explorations to come, I think.
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September 27th – A meeting in Birmingham at lunchtime meant an afternoon meeting with a pal and a small photo expedition around the business quarter and Cathedral Square, and also chance for tea and cake.
There had been a large rainstorm, but the sun was out and the city shone like a diamond: It the soft sunlight it felt like a summer evening.
Birmingham proves as it always has that old and new architecture can coexist, clash, blend and combine to be wonderful. I adore this place.
An unexpectedly fun afternoon.
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September 25th – There are a few flowers left, to be fair, one of the most profuse being bindweed.
Every time I mention this beautiful yet pervasive weed, I send gardeners into fits of apoplexy – they hate this crawling, strangling plant with a passion.
But I stick to my guns: Where I see it most – on towpaths boundaries, trail edgelands and scrub, it’s a beautiful, white flower that’s really under appreciated.
Sorry.
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September 10th – Up in Pleck, Walsall I spited this brisk, urbane puss who was stalking ratty in the rubbish on the opposite canal bank by Scarborough Road Bridge. Nervous at first, I thought he was going to run away, but he found his courage and faced me while I caught him on camera.
This large black and white puss may be rooting through the rubbish but he was neat an tidy and very lithe.
Clearly one has to look one’s best, even in the most grim conditions…
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September 4th – Also in the bright berry department, this bright red example grows in similar urban situations as the firethorn, but has much more spread, larger berries in smaller clumps more evenly spaced.
I was surprised to find that it’s actually a type of cotoneaster – plant that I’m used to having tiny leaves and berries.
It’s certainly very beautiful and the birds are already clearly digging in…
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September 3rd – Hornbeam trees are fascinating. Often mistaken (particularly by me) for beech, the leaves are perfectly ridged and beautiful, but the seeds, in long drop chains a bit like sycamore, are fascinating.
They’re ripening now and will soon be dappling the cycleways, pavements and industrial estate backways with golden brown mast.
Autumn’s colours may be more muted, but they’re still gorgeous.
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