Black Country Colour and Culture

Saturday's excursion to a Shropshire market town to meet my screenplay contact in person for the first time, was thoroughly enjoyable, although Sarah and I had to abandon our meeting after an hour, due to the great British weather, which insisted on precipitating all over us and my notes.  We were both on the same page - literally (we met to read through my treatment over a coffee) - and figuratively in terms of avoiding the insides of drinking establishments.

In other news, our son had attended a bowling party and had received notification that one of the girls had later tested positive for Covid, so 10 days of isolation for him - not that it's much of a deterrent for a teenager.  Ten days confined to the your bedroom with mobile phone and gaming pc?  The horror!  For the record, we didn't insist he remain in his bedroom - he just prefers it that way as our company, conversation, TV choices and humour are just intolerable.

To be on the safe side, we decided to abandon a planned visit to Chastleton House, as we had arranged to share a car with a couple of old timers and we're still being cautious.  We may all be double jabbed, but I wouldn't knowingly put someone at risk of catching Covid, in exactly the same way that I wouldn't inflict a bad cold or bout of flu on another.

Instead of galivanting around the UK, we focused again on the garden, cutting back the ivy which has been gradually encroaching on the patio area, covering everything in its path....including not one, but two rat bikes (show props).

   This is what it looked like before....

....and now.  No huge difference, but more space and a big reveal of our curious stone head (I wondered where he'd got to).

Having tidied the area, I decided to plant Mexican Fleabane in the chimney pots.

My recent blog was all about pink.  This time, the focus was firmly on blue.  The hydrangeas are in flower.   We have two blue ones in slightly different shades, courtesy of variations in the soil?  

I also managed to get my hands on one of the elusive blue tinged geraniums from Ashwood Nurseries.  It's planted by the rusty dwarves and I'm hoping it will spread everywhere like its pink relative.

I planted another couple of evergreen ferns to take hold in the shade of the Magnolia tree...

...and treated myself to this very showy French Hydrangea, now illuminating the top of the garden beneath the woodland canopy.  I picked the one with the tallest shoots and am willing it to reach its 5-6 foot optimum growth as soon as.

Meanwhile, Gareth tackled the wisteria busy claiming the guttering at the side of the house, which was all fine and dandy until he disturbed a wasps' nest and descended the ladder at warp speed, swearing his head off.  They might be the thugs of the insect world, but they create beautiful homes.  Here's one I photographed in a hedgerow a couple of weeks ago.

We decided to give Dr Jones (our illustrated mannequin and work of local artist, Yvette) a dose of vitamin D and showed him our handiwork.  Yvette's Instagram moniker is @creative_curiosities.  You can view her work here yvette appleby (@creative_curiosities) • Instagram photos and videos.  Yvette kindly allowed us to take Dr Jones to our first trading show and he was such a hit and - very weirdly - became part of the family.  For a few weeks, he sat, brooding (he tends to do that) in our front room.  Eventually I got used to him and stopped jumping out of my skin every time I entered the room.  We also grew to like him.  He's really no trouble and is easy on the eye, if not the best conversationalist.  We therefore struck a deal with Yvette and he lives with us.  We launched an online competition to name him and so, to give him his full title, please allow me to introduce you to Dr Edwin Jones.  

We also squeezed in a walk around the lake within the 180-acre parkland of Himley Hall, a beautiful 18th century house and one time home to the Earls of Dudley with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown.  

Himley Hall is only around 3 miles from our house, but the walk would take us along a busy road, so we opted to park in a nearby side street to shorten the less interesting leg of the journey.  This shortened walk took us past another property of historical significance - Holbeche House, central to the Gunpowder Plot.  Allegedly there are visible bullet holes in the exterior walls.  It's now a nursing home, which I think is a real shame.  I would love to have a closer look.  As it stands, I only have TV adaptations to help me visualise Catesby and co. drying out their gunpowder in front of a roaring fire with disastrous consequences.  For the record, quite a bit of work went into this image.  I have removed several sleeping policemen, a car and some distracting care home signage from his photo.  The lengths I go to!

There was a mini show on at Himley on the day we visited, just visible from across the boating lake in this moody photo.

Spot the moorhen amongst the lily pads.

Another historic Black Country attraction has taken up residence in the grounds at Himley Hall.  Matthew Jones & Sons' Victorian Fairground has been in the same family for five generations and was, until recently, located at the Black Country Living Museum.  I couldn't resist the chance to snap the fair during a rainy set-up and Matthew ushered me through the barrier gate to get some shots.

From wet fairgrounds to Wolves - specifically a visit to the city's Art Gallery (with a few photo stops on the way).  Here's an intentional camera movement abstract take on the Art Deco frontage of the once booming department store Beatties, which sadly closed its doors for good after 140 years of trading in Wolverhampton in 2020.

Some local graffiti or "a graffito" as my father-in-law recently pointed out to me.

This has to be the coolest pub in Wolverhampton.  We spent a good night holed up inside after a stand up comedy show some years ago.  Gareth sat next to Peep Show's Isy Suttie as I recall.

Once inside the gallery, we were greeted by this impressive sculpture,

and spotted this incredible hand crafted Russian doll made from a pine cone,

before making our escape after being menaced by King Kong in the Pop Art Fantasy World exhibition.

Don't have nightmares!

Oh, and I bagged this blue-ish matching Adini top and skirt for a fiver.  

How's your week been?

It's a Wrap

 It's Friday and finally the weather forecast is something I'm happy to come out from behind the sofa to watch.  Ever late to the party, I considered today - on the brink of a heatwave - that we really should have bought a water butt to enable us to safely refresh the pond water.  Can I blame my idiocy on this morning's second dose of AstraZeneca?  I reckon so.

Much of this week has been clogged up with admin and other mundane activities.  However, we did have a knock on the door from a local former musician who now supplies vinyl wraps, requesting to purchase some of our rust paint to add a creative final flourish to his VW T5 in the form of a rusty bumper.  Gareth willingly assisted, showing him the best technique for texture and depth of colour, much to the bemusement of the neighbours, who are very much a part of the manicure your lawn/rush-out-and-sweep-a-single-leaf-off-the-drive/clean-and-valet-your-car-every-Sunday brigade (they don't get it).  This prompted an amusing conversation about gorilla rust painting and who would make the most amusing victims.

Anyway, this van is purple, with a Marvel's Suicide Squad-themed wrap.  It was simply too pedestrian as it was.  It needed a rusty bumper to make it stand out.  

A couple of days and a few photo messages later, the customer is really happy with his "swampy, rusty looking bumper" and dropped off a crate of Thatcher's cider as a thank you.

You think the man on the van looks insane?  Here's my latest self portrait or postcard from the edge, taken during one of our recent cold, wet, housebound days.  My other accessory is a latex Elf ear (I have no memory of why I purchased Elf ears, but I knew they would come in handy).  I shared this with a local Facebook photography group.  No one mentioned the obvious.  Perhaps they were afraid to ask.  Eventually, one tentatively commented "Elvish...?"

Our daily exercise has taken us to Kinver this week and after a lifetime's knowledge of our local area, it's always exciting to discover a new route.  We started at the usual viewpoint and I took my usual silhouette shot of whoever happened to be passing at the time.  The greyhound threw some cool shapes.

One of the best views from the top.

Eventually we wound down and back to a different car park at the far end of the National Trust's land and followed a different footpath.  This one took us away from the Edge and through an area of enormous Beech trees, leading to this stunning bluebell woodland glade....

...and onto a beautiful cabin in the woods, complete with woodcutting tools...(see inside),

....past an interesting farm/commune...

and back through some wonderful Hobbiton-like scenery...

and this glorious rapeseed field.

Back at home, I soaked up Rankin's Great British Photography Challenge.  I was initially sceptical that it was just another formulaic show and a direct copy of Masters of Photography.  However, there were some key differences.  First up, no one goes home.  Secondly, Rankin really seems to take an interest in the contestants as people and artists, nurturing their talent and sharing the benefit of his experience.  One thing I was very pleased about was when Rankin congratulated Jackson on his submission for the "Nature is Fragile" challenge.  It was a badger skull in woodland, with foliage placed in and around it. In true Blue Peter style, here's one I took earlier.  Genuinely, I took this a couple of days beforehand.

Sadly I don't have access to Anna Friel (the Celebrity challenge), but maybe I can count this portrait of Flynne, a well known Irish local VW enthusiast with ankle bothering dreadlocks.

On Monday evening, we also paid a visit to the local fair (it's been years!)  We didn't go on any rides (some of the most terrifying experiences I've had have been on fair rides), but happy to capture events for posterity.  Despite the sometimes questionable safety of these ride and terrible, pumping music, I think I would miss them if they were gone.

For some reason, this reminds me of Happy Mondays' Step On video.  I kept imagining Shaun Ryder's profile to pop up above the Blizzard sign.  (Just me?)

Back to reality and garden-wise, I've photographed some of the latest garden visitors,

Honey Bee

Brown Butterfly

potted up some pretty annuals,

a Dahlia...

...and some gorgeous black Violas.

We've also transformed the rusty old wheel barrow buried in undergrowth at the top of the garden, into a herb garden.  I may have mentioned that we don't have many sunny areas in our garden.  This way, we can chase the sun!

Included in this arrangement is a Bronze Fennel from The Hairy Pot Company, the brainchild of Derek and Caroline Taylor, whose hairy pots are planted directly into the ground with zero waste.  You can read about them here.  Kirton Farm Nurseries Ltd home of the Hairy Pot Plant Co

The wisteria's also out and smelling wonderful.

And so as another day comes to an end, feast your eyes on these images taken two nights ago, during the rise of the May full moon "Flower Moon."  The cloudscape was incredible.  I was disappointed not to see a UFO dropping below it.

Bank Holiday looms.  Ours is to include a National Trust visit with friends and a picnic. I have a blanket and some G&Ts.  The rest will come together I'm sure.  Have a good one!