#365daysofbiking Fixed in a Hole
August 31st -For the first time in years, I travelled down Hobs Hole Lane which runs from Aldridge down to the Chester Roa, and I’d forgotten just how beautiful the rolling countryside of Bourne Vale and Lazy Hill is.
I must get down here again soon. It’s a beautiful spot and we’re lucky to have it nearby, and I bet it’s lovely in autumn.
#365daysofbiking Springing up for autumn
August 31st – A welcome return with the damper weather has been the fungi, which has been mostly absent all through the dry summer.
I love to see toadstools and fungus in all it’s variety and this example on the towpath – some sort of Suillus I suspect – was glistening in the morning rain and was alive with bugs feasting on it.
#365daysofbiking 1000 shades of grey
August 27th – I was not really any better, and with a keen wind and grey skies I didn’t go far, just a loop of Chasewater.
The North Heath is beautiful at the moment and I don’t spend nearly enough time up here these days: The heather is beautifully purple and despite the murk, there is a lot of greenery and colour.
But still, the day was damp and grey.
August 24th – At Chester Road near the Stonnall turning, just before Castlehill, change is afoot. The old quarry with the hardstanding, idle since the 50s after it’s use as a concrete block manufacturing works is now undergoing groundworks for the construction of a new care home.
There have been a number of planning applications for this site over recent times, and permission for a fairly large elderly person’s care facility was granted last year and will involve extensive modifications to the road to mitigate the driveway.
It’ll be interesting to watch this progress.
August 22nd – Also doing well this year seems to be the alder trees who are fruiting heavily with the catkins profuse.
This hardy, wetland loving tree grows well near the local canals and although not a stunner, is pleasing all year round.
August 22nd – Despite the cooler weather and repeated inexplicable attacks by a hedge cutter, the honeysuckle at the southern flank of the Black Cock Bridge embankment continues to flower, fruit and thrive.
Every time I pass this beautifully scented shrub it makes me happy.
August 21st – My late commute homeward bound collided with the start of the golden hour, a sign that the nights are closing in now, although I was unusually late, so no need to panic yet, I guess.
Passing the trees on the edge of Grange Farm near the Black Cock Bridge, the golden light fell through the edge land and was magical.
After a dull, damp, uninspiring start to the day, a welcome dose of sunshine.
August 20th – The coos of Jockey Meadows have clearly been here again. But there is no sign of them now.
I’ve been wondering if they’d be here this summer, as the meadow is lush and full of stuff they’d love to eat – but up to now, no sign of them.
But the feeding troughs are out, the grass is trampled down. But where are they?
I love to see them. I hope they come back soon.
August 20th – One of the sad but beautiful signs of a closing summer is toadflax, otherwise known as butter and eggs. This beautiful plant, in shades of yellow, white and orange will be common now in hedges and on towpath fringes until October.
It’;s a lovely thing but it does make me sad for a season passed.
August 19th – One of the more startling recolonisations of recent years has been the teasel. This dramatic, prehistoric looking plant grows a familiar, spiny seedhead beloved of small songbirds, particularly finches, but the name teasel comes from its industrial use as a comb for ‘teasing’ wool into thread.
When I was young these were a rarity around here, and I never saw one of these tall plants until adulthood. Now, thankfully, they are profuse and in lots of wayside hedges, scrubs, meadows and field-margins – which is helping the bird population.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 