#365daysofbiking I dream in colour:
October 9th – In Telford for the morning, I had business up on Stafford Park and the hedgerows and trees along the cycleway were absolutely gorgeous.
The blue sky merged with the reds, golds, yellows and the still green and made a beautiful multicolour palette as I cycled past on a lovely warm, sunny autumn morning,
Autumn’s pretty fine once you stop struggling and accept it.
365daysofbiking Ladies, please:
October 7th – I was also hacked off I was without a functioning camera when I witnessed this – something I’ve never seen before. Female deer, arguing.
At Chasewater, my light scared a group of red deer off the dam path down on to the dam itself. They were all females of varying ages, and there was some jockeying for position as they hurried away.
In these three photos you can see the two deer of the left square off, one refuse to defer to the other, then they both buck and kick each other.
It was over in an instant, but the sound of their feet clattering against each other is something I’ll not forget.
Neither is the spectacle of two female red deer, bickering.
365daysofbiking Noble jacket:
October 7th – I set out on a pleasant but cold afternoon full of optimism. I was off to Cannock Chase to find deer, fungi some fine downhills and some autumn colour.
Fate had other ideas.
The first problem was I’d left home with a flat battery in my camera, so all these are phone photos, and without exception, I think they’d have been better pictures if taken with my camera. But I would tend to think that, I suppose.
Two mechanical failures and I was sunk. A makeshift repair on a shredded tyre wasn’t dependable, so a quick visit to Castle Ring was to be my lot.
I found good toadstools on the sandy embankment by the canal between Wharf Lane and Newtown bridges, which was nice, and the golden hour at Castle Ring was beautiful. Sad to note though now the once stunning view is again obscured by the tall trees down the hill – you can barely see the power station at Rugeley at all now.
A great sunset as I passed back through Chasewater just rubbed salt in my flat battery wound.
Some days are just not well starred. This was one of them, sadly.
365daysofbiking Ever falls the twilight:
October 6th – I returned to Brownhills in the overcast weather hinterland between night and what passed for day. It was damned grey and inside, I felt that way too. The onset of winter has me by the neck this year and I’m alternately OK with it and then quite down. I somehow feel I let summer slip away – I didn’t, I rode lots and saw lots and it just ended early, but I feel bereft.
From the Silver Street pedestrian bridge, I surveyed one of my classic winter views: Autumn is settling well here now, and the new houses with the nice line along the canal made an interesting match to the colour of the trees before them. There is life here now, lights in the new dwellings, and no longer does it feel desolate to stand here and be confronted with the place I love.
This town is changing, like the season; slowly, imperceptibly if you’re not attuned to it, and I think for the better. Finally, the ghosts of the civic failure here are being exorcised, and there is evidence of a little hope, a little life, a little warmth.
Unlike the season, Brownhills is opening up. Perhaps this grey twilight is better than I thought.
365daysofbiking Noble jacket:
October 5th – Darlaston is probably at it’s very best in autumn. An indisputably industrial, highly urbanised Black Country town with a huge amount of greenery, it wears the multi-coloured noble jacket of autumn beautifully.
In Victoria Park, looking towards the Mystic Bridge, autumn is just starting to paint the trees in shades of yellow, gold and orange.
The sadness of the summer’s loss is now passing, and I’m quite enjoying the change in the scenery.
365daysofbiking Buttered up:
October 5th – I said a good few weeks ago now that butter and eggs, or toadflax is one of the harbingers of summer’s end: When it comes into flower, you know the season is at an end.
Still going strong in early October, it’s one of the few things still in flower, resolutely brightening the canal towpaths, edgelands and hedgerows.
A beautiful, but sad flower.
#365daysofbiking Skywiring:
October 4th – On my way home I had business in Shenstone, and as I returned through the tiny hamlet of Lynn, darkness was falling with the most stunning, dramatic sky.
I loved the way id highlighted the overhead electricity lines, which are something I consider beautiful and mysterious. These complex arrangements of poles, cable, metal structures and ceramic insulators are ignored by most, but are essential to our daily lives.
Few study them, and even fewer understand their layout, function and protective equipment. But that’s the whole point: The mystery in the complexity.
Meanwhile, while I was admiring the wiring, I was being watched, and never noticed.
#365daysofbiking Stars on earth:
October 4th – Returning early this year, on a patch of edgeland on the industrial estate in Darlaston near where I work, one of the most remarkable fungi I’ve ever seen: an earthstar.
Just a couple at the moment, but one is deformed: but these bizarre organisms, when in their prime are stunning. A buff-coloured puffball emerges as it’s casing unfurls in almost petal-like sections around it, forming a star.
They look like they’re made of modelling clay or ceramic. They are absolutely astounding to see.
I adore fungi. It’s so unlike anything else.
#365daysofbiking Telephone man:
October 3rd – I stupidly left my camera at work, but took some shots with the phone camera over Clayhanger Bridge going to the village to undertake an errand on my way home. The phone is an iPhone XS and althoughhe range in the images is a little harsher than I’d like, phone cameras have come a long way considering the obvious limitations of the physical design.
I quite like these images, showing the the Brownhills Canal is also showing beautifully the colours of the season.
I also loved the sky reflection on the canal…
#365daysofbiking The united colours of autumn:
October 3rd – After the rain of the night before, the morning commute was warm, dry and almost humid. I made the very best of it by riding the canal the long way, and wasn’t disappointed – the autumn colours are very beautiful this year, and the canals and wooded areas of Darlaston are absolutely gorgeous.
There are some upsides to the time of year after all.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 