Wychbury Hill and the Obelisk

Strange weather today. As I set off from Halesowen Rugby Club the sky was quite striking - even if I could barely see the pitch

Looking over to the woods on my route, the sky looked more welcoming! 

The road narrowed...

 ...and just after the house there was this amazing view,

Up the path towards the obelisk

From here the views were even better. I can never resist the view over to Eve Hill flats

The five white flats are in Brierley Hill (rain over some distant places)

Towards Lye 

Finally, the Obelisk

View from the top. The blurs are rain!

 Down again, towards Clent. This part of the path was not visible. The grass was almost waist high, but wind-flattened, making progress difficult. I felt as if I'd done a step class!

The parched ground is a clear indicator of the driest September since records began in 1910

I could hear the loud traffic on the A456 Hagley Road, (behind the hedge) but I may as well have been in a different world.

Reaching the end of the path, I looked back to the Obelisk

My only sight of traffic: the busy A456 at the Wassell Road roundabout

Back at the Rugby Club, the sky is now bright blue. I missed the rain altogether

The Obelisk is a folly belonging to Hagley Hall. There was graffiti on it, but I didn't show that on my photographs. When I got home, I read this on Wikipedia:

Since at least the 1970s the obelisk has been sporadically defaced with graffiti referring to the unsolved post World War II mystery: Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? when the decomposed body of a woman was found in a nearby wood. The graffiti was last updated in 1999.

Wikipedia is not necessarily a great source of truth, but the mystery was also referred to by Steve Punt in a Radio 4 programme in August 2014. Should have listened!