September 6th – in Birmingham early evening, I spotted this fine and clearly well-loved steed locked up outside the Odeon on New Street. A great example of British engineering, Moulton are a design icon. This is a folding bike full of technical genius and innovation, this example has a Rohlhoff gear hub, one of the best such hubs ever produced. It may look odd, but this is a fine bike with a devoted, cult following. A joy to see.
September 5th – The Beans that have fascinated me in the field in Lynn, near Shenstone, are just being harvested. They are as dry as old bones, both plant and pod, and something has cropped the whole plant at about six inches from ground level. There’s no residue left other than stubble. I didn’t see it happen, and so far, just the perimeter ofthe field has been harvested, so I’m none the wiser…
September 4th – The house with the remarkable chimneys in Stonnall, at the junction of Main Street and Wallheath Lane, has an unsuspected history. When I was a lad, the house was a petrol filling station, and the house that now stands on the left was built on it’s forecourt. I remember the garage well; it had a samll shop area through a wood and glass door and I often bought drinks and sweets there on my explorations as a youngster.
I was glad to see it so beautifully preserved, but I do miss the garage. A symbol of changing times.
September 4th – I know I keep banging on about the harvest, but this year really has been highly unusual. It’s now early September, and crops that should have been in barns a month ago are still languishing in the fields; many possibly ruined.
Ziksby replied to my recent post about the harvest around Stonnall and Shenstone mostly being over, by pointing out that it was still ongoing around Aldridge and northeast Walsall: indeed, I was over-optimistc and it was still ongoing around south Staffordshire today. I noted one particular crop of wheat, still stood in the field between the railway and Hollyhill lane at Shenstone, that seems to be ruined. The grain is blackening, shrivelled and small.
Despite this, the recent good weather has prompted an agricultural machinery invasion, with harvesters working around the clock. A truly remarkable season.
September 3rd – Beauty is often found in unexpected places, and unexpected circumstances. Like a bad penny today, I pitched up again in South Wigston. This station – no more than a suburban halt, really – has always been a station I’d hated. No information system, little shelter, grim and fore bidding in the dark. And very, very cold in winter. Yet, this year, something strange happened. I discovered beauty here. I started to study the patch of scrub between the ramp and platform on the northbound side way back in spring, when it started to show a remarkable diversity of flowers. Untended, it seems to have been subject to some form of guerrilla planting. As the seasons have advanced, I’d spotted more stuff going on in this patch of scrub, which I feel sure I’m the only person ever to have noticed. It’s enchanting.
Today I found myself studying it again, at 8:45 on a misty, yet hazily sunny autumn morning. The fruiting has started in earnest. Haws, Hips, and catoniaster (the blackbirds go nuts for those bright orange berries) mingled with teasels, snails and cobwebs to make an autumnal tableaux that astounded and transfixed me.
Sometimes, I think I must be the only person in the world who gets excited about this stuff.
September 2nd – I just knew all day it was going to be a good sunset. I had no idea why; sometimes you can just tell. At teatime, that cold, damp chill descended, of the kind you only get in autumn and spring, and the sky started to turn pink. I knew it was game on. I took my time and headed to Chasewater, which has to be the best place to catch a sunset in these parts. I was surprised and delighted by what I found: not just a great sunset, but a yellow moon rising the east, geese honked and chattered in the dusk as they came in to roost. Bats skittered about my head, and moths became iridescent in my bike lights. Behind this was the most delightful susurration – the continual lapping of water in the darkness. I realised how long it was since I’d heard that at Chasewater. A fine thing. It’s been grim times, old girl, but it’s nice to feel your recovery at last.
August 31st – Here’s another one I can’t identify. I noticed it today growing up along the palisade fencing along the canal access steps of Walsall Wood High Street: some kind of creeper, the leaves are almost ivy-like, yet this isn’t evergreen or leathery in appearance. The single red berries are rather odd. Can’t ever recall seeing anything like this before.
August 31st – I know bugger all about Lepidoptera. That’s not to say that caterpillars, butterflies and moths don’t fascinate me, because they do, but I never found time to read much about them. They’re very curious things. Take this fellow, for instance. 30mm long, clearly a Wolves fan, I spotted him whilst travelling at some speed down a canal towpath in Aldridge. I pulled the bike to a halt, and went back to examinee what I thought I saw crawling along a himalayan balsam stalk. How does that even work? I spotted him really easily, presumably so can his predators. How does that work on an evolutionary level? He’s certainly striking, hairy and caprivating. Anyone recognise what it is?
Edit: he appears to be a future cinnabar moth. Wonderful, black and red moths… and also rather late, it seems.
August 30th – I noticed this poster a few days ago, and it’s been bothering me ever since. I think it’s one of the worst advertising banners I’ve ever seen. I’m assuming that the company concerned, the builders Cameron, are trying to tell me that if I buy one of their new build houses in Rushall, I can save tens of thousands of pounds. What they’re actually telling me is I can’t save anything. I think it’s bloody awful, am I alone in this? Is it only me that is annoyed about stuff of this nature?
August 30th – An odd day. I only had one thing to do – go and meet someone in Tyseley, Birmingham. I set off for the 9:20 train from Shenstone, but a fallen tree at Erdington stopped all services. So my easy day turned into a cycle your of Birmingham. I raced into the city through Sutton, Wylde Green and Erdington, hopped on the canal under Spaghetti Junction, pausing only to photograph the oddest, most scary scaffold tower setup I’d ever seen (Yes, that is on a raft, held on with a ratchet strap, no, I don’t know why either). I continued to Tyseley through the city centre on the canal, passing Camp Hill and the most unpleasantly surfaced canal footbridges I’ve ever experienced. On the way back, I called in at stops in Greets Green and Darlaston. I was knackered, frankly…
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