August 27th – It was a clear, bright moonlit night and I had an errand to run so I blasted down the canal and looped around Brownhills. I’m really getting used to the Nikon now, and I enjoyed taking these pictures immensely.
The camera has odd foibles, but it’s a great little thing for sure.
I was amused to note the boat – complete with cushions and electric motor – tethered near the Anchor, clearly someone’s beer buggy of choice. Most excellent.
August 27th – Returning to Brownhills that evening, I stopped to look at these shrubs growing by the Pier Street bridge on the towpath. I’ve been peripherally aware of them for ages, but not studied them before.
I have no idea what they are, and the blooms – now mostly over – seem almost prehistoric.
I’ve never noticed this before and am curious as to what it is. I’ve not seen it anywhere else locally and it appears to be thriving. Is it a garden escapee?
August 26th – Returning late in a glorious golden hour, I stopped to look at Jockey Meadows, as I hadn’t done so for a while. The coos are long gone, and the harvest done and dusted, and the countryside here is wearing an autumnal jacket, everything in the late summer slumber that pervades this time of year.
The days are cooler, and drawing in. I’m going to be controversial here, but I don’t think it’s been a bad old summer.
August 25th – Although it was a grey, miserable morning, the canal near Bentley Bridge still looked awesome. It’s still very lush and green, in spite of the merciless mowing of the towpath. Today I noted snowberries were coming on to fruit, and the ragwort is still going well.
A little brightness is always nice on dull days. The kingfishers remain elusive…
August 25th – The land at the bottom of Bentley Mill Way, wedged in behind the houses on the Darlaston Road, the motorway and canal has been vacant and derelict a very long time, in fact as long as I can remember. Blighted by former shallow mining, and probably contaminated, this is scarred industrial wasteland that also has the River Tame flowing through it.
Since last year, work has been taking place on upgrading the adjacent Bentley Mill Way for a new improved road system, loftily touted to ‘improve development potential’.
In all the regeneration-bullshit that’s ebbed and flowed, there has been talk of reclaiming this land and building on it, and architect’s drawings of a particularly odd building have been circulated.
Someone has clearly been enticed here, as fresh boreholes have been drilled in the last week; those coloured pipes with locked caps are sleeved bores for surveying purposes.
Whilst the wasteland green is pretty in the summer, it would be nice to see building here. Let’s hope something happens soon.
August 24th – A remarkable sunset struck when I was travelling around on errands, and I couldn’t get in a good place to photograph it, so I let the trees in on the glory.
Beautiful. Very little sun in the days, but the sundowns are gorgeous.
August 24th – Fruits of all kinds from berries, to nuts to pears. All in a short section of canal from Clayhanger to Brownhills on a dull, airless journey home. Nature is bountiful at the moment, and I was pleased to find the untouched windfall hazels, as here don’t seem to be many around this year. I note also the pears did quite well at Clayhanger, and the blackberries are delivering a huge crop this year.
It’s feeling a lot like autumn now.
August 23rd – On my way to a friend’s house in the evening, I shot through Walsall Wood, and as I came over the canal bridge looking towards Walsall, something about the lights, the sunset sky and that window showroom caught my eye.
An odd splash of colour. It was actually raining lightly as I took these photos.
August 23rd – Caught in heavy rains at Cannock Chase, I headed for the nearest shelter which happened to be the cafe, Springslade Lodge. Awful phone photos, but I was struck by the effort the staff had put into dressing the garden with plastic tablecloths, flower vases and such, for no customers to be able to use it.
Oddly beautiful and a little sad.
August 22nd – A day of unexpected jobs and delayed activity, I finally got out at dusk and span on an errand to Burntwood, so naturally, despite the oncoming storm, I headed up through Chasewater.
The skies were dramatic, but I failed to capture them well, and whilst there were flashes of lightning and the odd rumble of thunder, despite riding back in steady, warm, refreshing rain, the foreboding, brooding skies failed to deliver.
But it was actually a lovely ride.
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