May 27th – He was there again, the cat I notice a lot in the waterside gardens at the back of Barrow Close. Black and white, not very old, he spends hours watching the water.
I wonder what he sees, and how he regards the far side of the water he’ll only ever reach when the canal freezes in winter? It must be like a forbidden paradise to him.
He’s a lovely lad.
August 18th – He was only a kitten, really; a sharp eyed, keen whiskered black and white mog exploring his world. This is where I saw the smokey grey pedigree chap a few weeks ago, just on the far side of the canal at Barrow Close in Walsall Wood.
Puss didn’t seem bothered about me, and was initially hunting something in the water. Foiled, he took a drink instead.
A lovely lad with a smudge-black nose and a remarkably long tail. Oh, to be an inquisitive young cat in summertime…
July 30th – It still seems too early to me, but it’s the time of the fruiting and berries now. I’m very familiar with the sticky red berries of honeysuckle – the glaze attracts dust and grime and makes them look grubby – but birds and bugs love them, although they’re mildly toxic to humans.
The white berry here I’m familiar with, but have no idea of the name. These used to grow on the front of a house I’d pass on the way to school, and the berries popped delightfully when thrown at the ground; this is what’s making me think they’re early. I’d have been plucking them in September, at the start of a new term. It’s barely the beginning of the summer holidays right now.
Anyone know their name?
July 16th – Hey, South Wigston has a station cat. With the close proximity of dense housing, and embankments and wastelands full of small, squeaky things, it was inevitable, really, but I’d never seen this young lad before.
He was doing monorail cat on the pedestrian barrier until I appeared. He hopped off when I got out my camera, but did pose for a few shots… a lovely lad, clearly.
Like pubs, every station should have a resident cat.
August 10th – Himalayan Balsam is a pain. Lovely to look at, its highly aromatic, metallic-smelling flowers line wetlands, riverbanks and marshes at this time of year. Growing to a couple of meters, it chokes native plants and is considered an invasive species. Sadly, it’s so prolific – this clump was on the banks of the Trent at Shugborough – I don’t think we’ll ever be rid of it.
July 22nd – Bindweed, the ubiquitous creeper with Snow White flowers is in full bloom at the moment – this example was growing on Brownhills Common. Like the willowherb, it’s a plant of the margins, the hedgerows and wastelands, and normally regarded as a pest and a weed.
It is, however, a type of convulvulous related to the generally more appreciated morning glory, and I think it’s rather beautiful.
July 18th – Heading to work through the backlanes of Little Aston, I spotted these to lovely carpets of colour in the same field. They’re beautiful – one purple, one white. I had thought at first from a distance that they might be flax, but as soon as i got close I realised they were spuds.
There are a good few chips in that there field…
January 16th – When I got to Tyseley, it was snowing, lightly. It had been a very cold commute – the bike computer said -4, but there was a freezing mist that condensed in my eyebrows and froze solid. There was a heavy hoar frost that painted everything in shades of the ethereal – trees, the railway, the urban sprawl – and I think it looked amazing.
I love how the cold weather makes even the mundane and ugly fascinating and beautiful.
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