Golden hour...

Cannock Chase is not my favourite beauty spot in Staffordshire - it is both too bleak AND too undemanding.  Bit dull really.

However, when the sun is at its 'golden hour', the chase does give great light effects.

Erratic geology...

This glacial boulder is a well-known meeting point on Cannock Chase. It even has a car-park named after it. Many walks on the Chase start here - including the AA recommended one.

It's also called the 'erratic' boulder, not because of its odd, semi-phallic shape, but because, in geology, an erratic is a stone that is quite different from those around it.
In this instance, this boulder is a stranger to those around it because it was swept down from a place hundreds of miles away to the north during the glacier movements of the Ice Age.

Stafford Knot meets deer

The brilliant colours of a russet autumn are upon us - the display this year seems brighter and redder than ever. Walking on Cannock Chase is just a feast for the eyes.

However, this photo is really about the logo in the top right-hand corner of this sign. It's a deer head (symbol of the Chase), which has then been incorporated into a Stafford Knot design. The Stafford Knot is the symbol of Staffordshire county. I like the mix.

Link: Stafford Knot 

Auburn autumn

Another autumn spectacular at Cannock Chase!
I know it looks as though I’ve dabbled with this picture in Photoshop, but this is just how it came out. It was just before sunset, so the light was that special colour already.

Katyn Memorial

The Katyn Massacre Memorial will no doubt have a ceremony at it today, today being Remembrance Sunday.
The memorial is hidden in a small copse on Cannock Chase, and - though there is a sizeable Polish community the county - it’s a bit of a puzzle why it’s placed there, but it is, so that’s that.

If anyone needs to understand the horror of brutal & totalitarian ‘politics’, I do recommend they see the film ‘Katyn’.  It tells the story of the Second World War massacre in which the Soviets shipped thousands of Polish officers and professional people (who had already surrendered) to a forest – and simply shot them all.
It was politics in the raw – Stalin had decided that Poland would be easier to manage with the middle-classes out of the way. The logic is impeccable, the results horrifying.
The Russians only admitted that Stalin had done it in 1990.  No wonder many Poles still fear Russia, and are happy to be in the European Union.

The film of Katyn is not gory incidentally. Instead it quietly but effectively blisters one’s spirit to its core. One is shaking afterwards.

Spectacular autumn

'They' (whoever they are) say the autumn is going to be spectacular. Well, as you can see, on Cannock Chase the autumn colours are already making a splash.

Incidentally, the same amateur weather-forecasters point to the early flowering of holly berries as a sure sign that it will be a really hard winter. I leave you to judge the truth of this.