Tag: Walsall

July 5th – Always bittersweet to see the berries come; a sign that spring is well and truly gone and summer is peaking.

Still, the Belisha orange berries of the rowan or mountain ash are beautiful in their own right and will bring colour aplenty to hedgerows, parks, verges and thickets for weeks to come, as well as being foraged for jams and jellies.

You can’t escape the passage of summer, so best enjoy it.

July 4th – Business in Brum at lunchtime, and a poodle back along the canal in the afternoon summer heat. The flowers right now are gorgeous – from the strong yellows of ragwort to the purples of willowherd – and even bindweed and  wild sweetpeas, right there in the inner city.

The other colour was from art – the Annatomix piece featuring the tangram style fox in DIgbeth was astounding, but I also liked the subtle wit of the red heron nearby.

A weary, but lovely ride.

July 3rd – Summer ticks on and as I noted a few days ago, we’ve moved from flowing to fruiting. 

Lots of berries are now developing on the branches, from haws to rowan berries and even plenty of ripening cherries.

These will bring with them reds, oranges and purples and a whole range of new colour as they and the season mature.

A wonderful time of year.

June 26th – Another hot and sunny day, and on the way to work, it was clear that fish has been breeding successfully in the canal at Pleck: Looking into the green water under Scarborough Road bridge, tends of thousands of tiny fry had had hatched. Further up the canal, larger fish were heading in that direction, one presumes fo lunch.

Who’d ever have thought these canals would be so green, beautiful and full of life?

June 13th – One of the more fascinating things about the commonly derided and scorned Canada goes is their propensity to social support between families.

On the way home from work this evening, four adults (one dallying out of shot) and two broods of goslings numbering a dizzying total of 12 youngsters in two distinct stages of growth indicated that two families were hanging out together and probably sharing childminding and security duties.

Can’t think of any other wild birds that do this.

Lovely to see, and I got hissed at in quadrophonic!

June 5th – This is an urban canal in the Black Country – Between Walsall and Darlaston, at James Bridge.

It runs past the site of what was one of the most polluting factories in Europe: James Bridge Copper Refinery.

The canal is green with water lilies, and dappled with yellow and white blooms from them; flag irises aggravate my hay fever but line the water margins. Two families of Canada geese promenade in the sun.

Not all change is for the worst.

June 1st – A grey day, largely but very humid. Storms were expected that never arrived, and the air of humid frustration was pervasive throughout the day.

Another blossom is out now, to add to the list – elderflower. So this weekend I shall be out with the sack, collecting some for a relative to make wine and cordial. Not too many though, as we need to remember the black-crimson fruit that will be used to make excellent wine in autumn.

A nice find on an unremarkable, draining day.

May 29th – The season is moving along so quickly now. All along the canals of Walsall the waterlilies are bursting into bloom. These large-leaved water plants spread from floating rhizomes in the spring, and have the most gorgeous yellow flowers that bugs seem to love.

There is a later strain that have white or pink, more ornate blooms. that won’t be far behind.

We never had this kind of beauty on the canals when I was a child. I still find it amazing.