October 31st – A beautiful day in Darlaston and on the canals of Walsall, with sun shining through a light mist, suffusing all with a soft golden light.
As I’ve noted, Darlaston wears autumn well, and Victoria Park, the mystic bridge and canals were all lovely today.
A welcome pick me up after yesterdays dull greyness.
October 31st – The mornings have been damp over the weekend, and we’ve had a little rain in what has generally been a very dry autumn indeed. This has led to the fungus taking a surge, and I noted in the canal cutting through Pleck this morning there was lots of fly agaric growing, some of which were astoundingly large. Contrary to my earlier fears, it actually seems to have been their year after all.
Meanwhile, the toadstools I found on the log at the back of Queen Street Cemetery have turned a gorgeous orange brown colour as they mature and die off.
Lets hope with a little damper weather, more fungus will appear. I love to see it.
October 21st – Riding to work along the canal in Walsall in the early morning, I noticed how green parts of the towpath margins still were – the bracken hasn’t yet turned at Bentley Bridge and the dead nettles are full in flower for the second burst this year.
This has been a peculiar autumn, with many things coming into bloom a second time before dying off. The weather really has been kind to us this year, but I can’t help feeling winter is going to be a shock to the system.
October 20th – Spotted from the canal towpath as I zipped past, a forest of toadstools growing on a fallen log in the scrub at the back of Queen Street Cemetery in Walsall.
I think they might be honey fungus, but I’m not sure. There were hundreds of caps, all growing in clumps, feeding on the decaying wood. Ranging in colour from a dull weigh to a dark burnt umber, they were beautiful and fascinating.
Best crop of toadstools I’ve seen for a while.
October 19th – Although I use the bike cam constantly, I stopped featuring video here because road cams are so common now I think they probably bore the pants off people.
But I’ve been thinking of late that I should start again – short clips showing positive things about riding.
Here, I’m about to tackle the Bescot Road island in Pleck, Walsall, and the importance or environmental awareness is key. A quick dive left and they pass, no delay.
Monitor not just your fore space, but to the left, right and behind you. And never relay on hearing.
October 19th – Ostensibly asleep, but wide awake and studiously ignoring me, this spendid striped character spotted in North Walsall presumably waiting for their owner to come home. Snoozing on a garden wall, with a clearly well-used carpet atop for comfort, this seems like a regular haunt for a watcher of the world.
What lovely markings and what a delightful puss!
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.
October 12th – I don’t think I’ve ever known a season where the wildflowers bloom for so long. It’s now mid October, and in the urban heart of Walsall on the canal at Pleck, there are beautiful flowers still.
Still attracting bugs, these are gorgeous and brightened an otherwise dull journey to work.
October 11th – Oh boy. Not more that a few days ago, I was bemoaning the lack of decent fungus this year, and was stunned to find a sing fly agaric toadstool in the usual spot near Chasewater, then this.
I was shotting along the canal through Pleck of all places, and as I rode a red flash on top of the canal cutting embankment caught my eye. Scrambling up there to investigate, I saw found one of the best crops of these cute red and white spotted fungi I’ve ever seen.
Large, profuse and very beautiful, these are in the heart of formerly industrial, urban Walsall, in a place few humans would ever think to go. A really wonderful find.
October 8th – Unusually, I’d had to go into Walsall and on to Wednesbury on a Saturday. The thoroughly uninspiring, grey afternoon was sad, as the forecast had been quite good. It was a good ride though, and I got lots of stuff done. Retuning at dusk, I span through the ‘Civic Quarter’ of Walsall , and stopped to look up Tower Street.
The Council House and it’s belcote are still impressive, but I dislike the striped paving and excessive street furniture here immensely – and the blue lights on the Gala Baths don’t help; but this was a quiet, pleasant place to reflect on the unexpected beauty of Walsall and what wonderful, clashing influences make up it’s urban core.
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