Tag: Walsall

August 31st – Returning home wearily as the light died, there was a very nice, purple-tinted sunset over Walsall, but I couldn’t find a good view of it without seriously going out of my way, which I was way too tired to do. Thankfully though, it gathered well and looked even better over the fields from Jockey Meadows out to the north over Grange Farm.

Thankfully, that’ll be the last late day until next week and I can chill out and catch up with things a bit… and hopefully get some better photos!

August 29th – A day of animals with no time to talk. I saw the tabby with the remarkably bush tail strolling purposefully down where else but the Catroplis that is Scarborough Road. 

I suspect puss is female, and was having no truck with my sort. Despite calling, making gentle gestures and the like, she said me zero heed and continued her walk down the road.

The squirrel in Victoria Park was similarly busy, gathering and burying acorns, storing food for winter, or ay be just starting off new saplings, who knows?

Neither animal stopped long enough for a good photo, so sadly, you’ll have to make do with these snatches quick ones, because… they were so busy.

August 25th – Travellers of a different kind in central Walsall. Still feeling grim even for the sun and fresh air, my burning of the candle at both ends was finally catching up with me, so a breather and a brew watching this narrowboat negotiate the locks at near Smiths Flour Mill in Walsall was in order.

I love to see the narrowboats – and this was a good one, in a scene hugely transformed in the last few decades. Once, the boat would have been grubby, in even blacker, heavily polluted surroundings, perhaps carrying coal to the power station, but now we’re surrounded by green and modern urbanity, and the cargo is not coal, but travellers, holidaymakers or boat enthusiasts passing another once industrial town.

How times change.

August 24th – Very tired, I trundled into work along the canal and spotted this heron hunting from the reed margin  at Bentley Bridge.

I still can’t quite believe that these shambling, slightly mad-looking birds frequent such an industrial, urban space – but there are so many and they look so healthy it’s wonderful. There must be clean water and plenty of fish to attract so many.

A joy the morning after a very long preceding night.

August 18th – The tidy little calico cat who sleeps with her tongue out was hanging around in The Butts, Walsall on my way to work: she was watching the world pass by from the pavement, tucked in nice and tidy.

I stopped to say hello, and she didn’t move, but didn’t invite fuss, either; we had a brief chat but she wasn’t interested in my company, clearly.

A lovely little puss someone loves very much.

August 16th – Another delight of the season, that frustratingly I couldn’t harvest: Giant puffballs on the patch of fenced off grass used as an occasional football pitch right in central Walsall between Smiths Flour Mill and the turn off the ring road for Birchills.

These are about the size of a football, and are pure white and lovely to eat. There were about 14 in total over the field, but due to the gates being locked, they were beyond the range of my frying pan. 

Nice to see these huge fungi though, looking for all the world like alien eggs.

August 9th – The day ended much better than it started. Still feeling sad, but the rain had stopped, the sun had come out and all around me things were trying to make me smile. 

The chocolate lab enjoying the wind flapping his ears in traffic in Walsall town centre; the kitten dozing on the bins in The Butts; the coos actually came to see me at Jockey Meadows and a chance encounter with normally snooty eyebrow cat at Catshill Junction all made me feel a bit better.

When stuff’s bad and life feels grim, sometimes the best thing to do is keep riding and enjoy the small things life shows you.

August 4th – Spotted on the way home, again in the cat metropolis that is The Butts in Walsall, this shy (presumed) siamese. It wasn’t feeling the love at all and certainly couldn’t make an exit fast enough, but what a lovely puss. Shame it didn’t fancy an ear tickle.

Someone is very proud of that gorgeous cat. Never seen this one before.