August 9th – I was riding along The Sportway in Burntwood, the access road to the Rugby Club, that runs alongside the Chasewater Railway. Just on the bend before Chasewater Heaths, a group of four red deer – three adults and a fawn – had heard an approaching train, and were making a sharp exit into the thicket.
They needn’t have worried. The trains here don’t go fast, being a preserved line…
August 8th – From Seven Springs I headed down onto the canal at Weetmans Bridge near Little Haywood, as far as Breretonhill, then back through Upper Longdon and Stoneywell. The canal was glorious on a golden evening, and I drifted lazily past narrowboats, clumps of Himalayan balsam and waterside gardens that were enchanting. At Longdon, I see the refurbishment of the windmill continues well, after seemingly being stalked for ages.
As I came through Stoneywell the dying sun caught the have step fields and rendered them precious.
August 8th – I saw a single deer, who was too quick to be captured by camera, but in the languid warmth, the rabbits on the canal weren’t too bothered as long as I keep still and didn’t make any noise.
I really liked the wooden carved badger on a canal boat near Wolseley Bridge, though. I guess that classes as wildlife. Of a sort.
August 8th – Up on Cannock Chase late afternoon, my love affair with this place continues. The heather is splendid at the moment, as is the thick brush of verdant bracken. The forest tracks around Wolseley Plain and Foxhunter’s Valley were as superb as ever.
After a hectic period at work and some ill health, this is just the tonic I needed.
August 6th – Whilst it’s always a good year for something, it’s also always a bad year for something else. So far this year I’ve yet to see a single hazelnut, and horse chestnuts don’t seem terribly profuse. Acorns too, seem in short supply.
Likewise, cotoneasters – beloved of blackbirds and other berry-eaters for their high sugar content seem to be having a thing year. There are plenty of ripening fruits on the branches, but they’re thin and small, caused by the lack of heavy rain I guess.
They also seem to be ripening rather earlier than usual, too. Maybe they’ll fill out in time.
August 5th – Spinning home through Shelfield I spotted this guy staring intently at something in the hedge. I’ve no idea what small, squeaky thing he spotted, but it kept him transfixed for a while.
Then he heard me, and gave me one of those evil, fixed stares that all the best cats master at an early age.
‘Who dares disturb my activities?’
I love cats.
August 5th – I was feeling OK, it was just after sunrise on a bright summer day and so I decided to head to work via Aldridge and the Chester Road at Stonnall, just to catch Grove Hill in the soft light. There seems to be a crop of potatoes growing around the iconic tree, but the lower field of wheat has been harvested.
In the early morning light the stubble looked golden and beautiful, and I was puzzled by the one remaining stack of square straw bales. You don’t see many square ones these days. Unusual.
I love this spot and haven’t photographed it for ages. But it changes little, and always retains it’s magic.
August 4th – If you;re around Walsall and have half an hour to kill, I can recommend a walk or ride down the cycle route that follows the Ford Brook in Goscote Valley from The Butts to Pelsall.
At the moment the meadows and heaths around it are alive with colour – rose bay willow herb, ragwort, daisies and other meadow flowers form a carpet, and the metallic tang and bright pink-white show of the invasive himalayan balsam is remarkable.
This isn’t commonly thought to be a picturesque part of Walsall – but there is so much to see, including a buzzard being mobbed by crows as I cycled my way home.
August 4th – No idea what’s happened in the last couple of days, but Victoria and Kings Hill parks in Darlaston are alive with fungi. I assume these are field mushrooms – I didn’t want to destroy them to check for sure. They’re a good 3-4 inches across and look healthy. So nice to see the fungi back, even if it does herald autumn…
August 2nd – Victoria Park, Darlaston, and a sign of the advancing seasons awakens me to the idea that summer is ebbing away: earthball fungus, looking pristine and fresh growing well in the grass.
Relatives of the better known puffball (indeed, some call the pigskin poison puffball), earthballs have no aperture to let the spores escape, they merely collapse when ripe and allow the wind to do the rest.
They are mildly toxic and can cause bad reactions, including a very bad stomach and allergy-like symptoms, such as rhinitis.
Fascinating fungus though.
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