August 22nd – The harvest seems to be taking forever this year. A bad summer, a series of late, false starts. Several fields around Stonnall and Shenstone are half-harvested. This must be a nightmare for farmers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen wheat lying ripe in the fields this late before. The swaths of straw at Springhill, I noted last week, have now, in one day, been baled and gone, yet work inches forward at Lynn and Sandhills.
This is one dreadful year.
August 21st – Autumn is tapping on my shoulder. Soon, it will be that most depressing of bank holidays, the summer one. To me, that one signals the end of summer and start of autumn, like a marker post. Tonight, there was distinctly autumnal weather to remind me. Sudden, very heavy showers alternated with sunshine. It was getting colder, and there was a chill edge to the rain. This is what autumn always feels like at first.
Hello darkness, my old friend.
August 21st – The Mount, a handsome, old, recently renovated house stands at the brow of the hill in Lichfield where the Burton Old Road, Church Street and Trent Valley Roads meet. It’s a wonderful looking place, and has been lovingly restored. I noticed yesterday that the original access hatches still exist in the rear chimney. These blue cast-iron doors allow access to the flue for the sweep – a once common feature, yet few survive, let alone adjacent like this. The Mount was previously used by an organisation – I think the Scouts or sea cadets – and was empty for a long while. Excellent to see the place loved again.
August 20th – I don’t know what to make of this. Near Shenstone, it’s now time to harvest the spring-planted potatoes. I’ve never seen spuds being automatically reaped, and have often wondered how it’s done. Looking at the state of this field, not very well. If parts of this crop have been harvested, there is a large quantity of taters left in the ground. I’m hoping someone collects them by hand, or maybe they will be collected by some kind of second pass of the machine, otherwise the waste would be terrible. A conundrum.
August 20th – Leicester again today, and South Wigston station – usually a place of vague, unfocused hatred for me, continues to surprise and delight. Last time it was roses and foxgloves. This time, sweet peas, I think. Just growing wild on a patch of unloved scrub, wildflowers and weeds being beautiful, for no other reason than to attract bees and make me realise what a fine country I live in.
A Monday morning delight to the soul.
19th August – I again sneaked out in the early evening. I’d been working all weekend, and was aching for a bit of freedom. I spun up the canal in a lovely golden hour, and I noted the hedgerows and greenery that’s just exploded with growth since the warm weather came. Ferns, hawthorn and nettles are staging a battle to reclaim the towpath along the stretch from Anchor Bridge to Ogley Junction. It’s beautifuly green, lush and verdant.
Later, at Chasewater, I noted how the birds were returning to their old haunts on the main lake – The jetty from the waterski club is now serving as an impromptu gull roost.
A gorgeous evening.
August 18th – I left the house in the early evening to get some shopping in and pick up a takeaway. On my return, I crossed Chasewater. It’s really filling up now, and the recovery continues. The depth gauge on the pier now is only about 500mm clear of the water, and slowly, inexorably, the water is reclaiming the reed-beds and willows that populated the dry bed. I’d forgotten the joy of seeing a fine sunset reflected in the lake surface. Majestic.
August 17th – It was very grey and spotting with rain as the heavy wind blew me back up Shire Oak Hill later in the day. Oddly, the gates to Shire Oak Landfill – the former quarry at Sandhills – had been left open, and I took the opportunity to have a play with the zoom mode on the camera. The view from this spot is always great, although hard to capture in photos, but despite the grey murk of the day, the images weren’t too bad. Springhill, Hammerwich, Wall and Lichfield were all clearly visible.
August 17th – Some development decisions baffle me totally. Out again at dawn to Four Oaks station, I found myself early and hanging around. I studied the apartment blocks that had been built on the former builder’s yard next to the station. The yard was originally railway sidings last used to serve MotorRail, and is cut into the hill back towards Mere Green. That means a very narrow strip of land with an oblique retaining wall one side, and a view over a commuter railway station at the other. Into this narrow dog-leg, builders have squeezed bland, characterless boxes.
Presumably, the Mere Green/Four Oaks adress sells them, and the commuter links. I find them utterly hideous, with a dreadful outlook.
August 16th – Redditch, despite its tedious, unrelentingly bland modernity, has an old quarter of sorts. Heading from Church Green down to Abbeydale on the cycle route that passes trough town, I recently noticed this unusual pair of house plaques. Celebrating the coronation of Edward VII and his queen Alexandra in 1902, it’s an unusual thing. Edward was the classic long time king in waiting, Victoria’s son, he spent years in waiting, a situation resonant today. He did, however, more or less invent the modern Royal Family, encouraging his mother to make public appearances, attend openings and suchlike. In the end, the king they called The Peacemaker died in May, 1910 after being on the throne only eight years. Edward was widely considered to be a decent, good monarch and was nicknamed ‘The Uncle of Europe’, due to his scholarly love of peace and foreign affairs.
All reflected in one house in a bland street in a new town.
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