July 12th – With it being so sunny, and no shortage of people around, I didn’t expect to see the deer at Chasewater. Fortuitously, I was wrong; there were three discrete groups, one with a young fawn, all browsing the North Heath.
They were largely tolerant of my attention, and were looking in good health.
A sight I still find astounding. Such beautiful creatures.
July 12th – A much better day. I got on top of, if not actually beat my technical issues. My stomach was improving, and I didn’t feel quite so bleak.
I spun out to Chasewater late afternoon, and rode the full circuit, which I haven’t done for ages. The sun was bright and strong, and the heaths and meadows rewarded me with bee buzz, grasshoppers ratting away, damselflies, birds and deer, as well as a wealth of flowers and fine views.
Just the tonic I needed.
July 10th – On the way home, I passed through Walsall and noticed something that takes me by surprise every summer – the roses in the beds at the Arboretum Junction. They’re beautiful, and my compliments and thanks to whoever planted and maintains them.
July 9th – I wasn’t particularly late back, but the golden hour seemed to settle in early, on a peaceful, mirror calm Catshill Junction. The new flats have balconies now, but still no sign of anything being done with the scrub and statue on the canal bank.
On the towpath side, the buggers don’t seem to stop mowing at the moment – I’ve never known a year like it. It’s almost as if the moment an interesting flower pops up it must be cut down.
It never used to be like this. I’m convinced it’s just so the Canal and River Trust can look like they’re pro active whilst ignoring real infrastructure issues.
July 9th – I’m seeing loads of this by the waysides this year, I think it’s some variety of bugle. It’s a lovely, delicate purple flower that seems to be really at home at track edges, like here at Pelsall or on canal towpaths.
A lovely little flower I’ve not seen previously in such profusion.
July 8th – An enervating, hectic day from which I returned late. Tired, aching and verging on a sugar crash, I relented and stopped for a rest and a few sweets at the small meadow above the new pond at Clayhanger. I’d caught it in a lovely golden hour, and I reflected on how this spot had changed. When I was a kid, this hollow leading to a sunken pond with tree-lined banks was a spoil heap standing a good ten feet above my head. Between then and now, the colliery spoil was removed, the area landscaped and allowed to mature.
Not all change is for the worst.
July 8th – Another tick in the arrivals list for midsummer was added today: rose bay willow herb, or old man’s beard. I had to nip into Great Bridge from Darlaston, and spotted this interesting blue-finger variant on some waste ground. It’ll be a rash of colour for a few weeks, then fill the air with floating seeds.
Apparently, the leaves make a decent tea, and once skinned, you can bake and eat the roots. It’s a fascinating plant, but one that dwells on the fringes and is sadly ignored by most folk.
July 7th – Another desperately dull day, with not many photo opportunities. Sadly, I took a bunch of photos on the way home, and messed the settings up, so the only ones I have to show are the from the cycleway in Goscote again this morning.
I note we’re in for a fruitful year; not only are the apples plentiful, but cherries seem to be having a fine time, and haws look to be good, too; if the blossom is anything to go by I think we’re in for a bumper crop of black and elder berries too.
I love the dog roses, smelling wonderful in the post-rain humid air, and the cornflowers look superb too, in their thistle like glory.
Some much great stuff going on in the hedgerows – and all on one short stretch of path in Goscote.
July 6th – On an equally dull return commute, harassed by the threat of an oncoming deluge, I shot along the canal on the way home. Pausing only at the small patch of meadow – less than 100 square feet – at t eh top of the new pond at Clayhanger, I captured these midsummer soldiers: St. John’s Wort and the gorgeous thistle.
Come back sun, and make these soldiers shine!
July 6th – On the way to work on a grey, dull Monday morning, these apples near the cycleway in Goscote caught my eye, and made me think. They’re growing well, and ripening in the recent warm weather.
That’s a harbinger of late summer.
Just where is this year going?
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