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.
August 10th – The harvest was underway everywhere I looked – out at Hammerwich, Stonnall, The slopes of Longon and the plains of Staffordshire. Everywhere I looked, there were plumes of grain dust rising in the distant fields like palls of smoke. At Home Farm, Sandhills, baling of the straw was ongoing. The parsnips in the field behind still look lush, and the oilseed rape is still not ripe, but the wheat, plump and healthy, is now stubble. And so the cycle continues.
August 9th – Some months ago there was a brouhaha locally about plans to manage this section of Brownhills Common by removing the conifers, which are not natural here and are damaging the biodiversity of the heath.
Many locals didn’t see what the problem was. Here its is, this afternoon, in a nutshell.
Here we have open heather heath, host to a myriad of insects, small mammals, and passing deer. The heather, grasses and small, deciduous saplings are being choked by fast-growing spruce.
What chance does that oak sapling stand against the larger conifer shading it? If left unchecked, how diverse will this spot be in five years?
This is why management is necessary. Because if we’re not careful, the heath here will be lost, together with all the species it contains.
August 9th – I was pleased to note that someone has taken it upon themselves to paint and restore the old milepost at the top of the Black Path on the Watling Street in Brownhills. The sign, which is quite old, has been broken the way it is for as long as I can remember, but it’s nice to see it white with the remaining test picked out in black. I have no idea why it was erected here, or who by; it’s not in the common local style. I’m also curious as to why it says ‘Rugeley’ at the base, a detail I’d never previously noticed.
It would be nice if it could be restored to it’s original condition. I wonder what the blank arm said?
August 8th – I’m intrigued by one of the less publicised additions to the skyline of Brownhills brought about by the refurbishment of Humphries House, Brownhills’ tallest building. I noted some time ago the addition of what I thought were winches for access cradles, mounted on the roof above the major vertexes of the block. It turns out that they aren’t winches or hoists at all, but Domehawk CCTV cameras. I owner who monitors them, how far their field of view reaches and under whose auspices they’re installed?
August 7th – Perry Barr, where even the local cat population displays attitude. Never had a cat bob its tongue out at me before, the cheeky little devil…
August 7th _ I spotted this strutting juvenile heron on the Tame Valley Canal at Hamstead, Birmingham, on a sunny afternoon. Displaying a good bit more bombast than most herons, he wasn’t scared of me and performed wonderfully on the opposite bank, stalking, preening and strolling.
I love herons. They always look like eccentric old men; dishevelled, preoccupied and slightly mad.
August 7th – There is a destructive force in our midst, reducing brickwork to rubble and invading any scrap of greenspace. Alien? Hardly. It’s buddleia – an invasive shrub that infests the hinterlands, margins and rooftops of urban areas. Able to grow in the most precarious of situations, an accumulation of soot and grime in a brickwork fissure is all it takes to grow. Once taken hold, it’s very hard to eradicate, and the power of the roots to split apart man-made masonry cannot be overestimated.
This time of year, it’s in full, glorious purple flower. A joy to behold, unlike the damage it causes.
August 6th – At the other end of the route, Pelsall. Dormitory, shady, leafy. Beautiful in places, but ever so slightly smug about it. This is Walsall’s Metroland.
August 6th – I’d been in Darlaston, and returned home via the cycleway down the Goscote Valley. Despite small areas of tipping and litter, it’s lovely at the moment; the pastures and wastelands are bright with willow herb, wort, convulvulus and budleia, and the Ford Brook has tall swathes of Himalayan balsam growing tall. It’s an unwelcome species, but it is gorgeous to look at.
All the way through Goscote I watched two buzzards wheel and soar on the warm breeze. You wouldn’t think this area could be so peaceful and beautiful.
Walsall still has the capacity to surprise.
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