June 19th – Rolling up from Milford, over the River Trent, one comes to the delightful village of Tixall. There are several great architectural features here, the Gatehouse, Stables, Pepperpot lodge, church and more than one beautiful home. I like the avenue best; a long, straight, tree-lined lane terminating in a lovely little observatory overlooking the Trent Valley and Shugborough Estate.
England doesn’t get much better than this.
June 19th – First decent long ride in some time saw me shoot 45 miles over the Chase, with a particularly exhilarating run down the Sherbrook Valley from Pye Green to Milford (video coming later). I started by checking out the honeybee swarm I’d noticed a few days before. To my surprise, they were still there. Less dozy now, clearly with purpose, they were defensive and busy. They appeared more organised and seemed to be dragging vegetation into their seething, humming morass. This is fascinating me.
June 18th – Village cricket is so much more thrilling than the professional game, there’s so much more at stake. Here at Wall, near Lichfield, sporting chaps in their whites were not deterred by the rain showers and battled for honour in the overcast afternoon, no doubt looking forward to a pint at the local afterwards.
In a coincidental nod to Roy Harper, notice the dog in the outfield…
June 18th – I don’t really want to think about what this valve does…
It opens and closes a drainage culvert from the M6 toll. Dotted along the motorway’s length are drainage settlement lagoons that catch surface water, and allow the pollutants (like road grit, rubber particles and debris) to sediment out before flowing into local streams and drains. In the event of a spill of serious pollutant, this valve would be closed to hopefully prevent the damage from extending to the local hydroecology. Sadly, the culvert it closes has a tiny capacity, and in a rainstorm would overtop into the lagoon anyway.
Cheap engineering lip-service.
June 17th – One for A Lichfeldian, curator and amateur historical whizz behind Lichfield Lore. She’s intrigued by a curious bell on Leomansley Vicarage, Lichfield. I pointed out at the time that there was a spurious bell fitted to the former council house in Brownhills, used to scramble the local fire brigade in days before the adoption of the telephone. I kept meaning to photograph it for her, but sadly forgot until today.
It’s a lot more grand than I remembered, and is now covered in netting to keep the pigeons out. I wonder how long it is since it was last sounded? Also in the picture is the wonderful town hall clock, the three-faced liar. Front face said a quarter to four. South face, pictured, said four o’clock. The time was actually ten to four. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that clock tell the correct time. It’s thoroughly symbolic of the town and it’s fortunes.
June 17th – This is, to put it simply, the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. Minding my own business – whilst being generally as nosey as ever – I was cycling round Brownhills and spotted, through the noise and fence wobbling, this swarm of what have been since identified as honey bees. There must have been thousands of busy, intertwined insects massed in this clump. It dripped small knots of the creatures like liquid. It was, quite simply, mesmerising. They were no threat, some lazily settled on my jacket, but they were far more interested in the swarm.
Apparently, the bees mass like this and send out scouts to check for suitable food sources. If that’s successful, they start constructing a nest. I’ve seen beehives close up, but this was totally new to me. This is in Brownhills, on a dull Friday afternoon. Nature is all around, just trying to impress us.
Who’d have thought it?
June 16th – This is a first for me – Red Deer at Jockey Meadows. I know I’m late to the party, since warning signs have been up for a couple of years, but these two young ladies are the first I’ve spotted close to Green Lane. They weren’t too timid, and seemed to be enjoying the lush grass and deep cover the meadow provides. I just hope the drivers on Green Lane take care. Hitting a deer is often fatal for the driver as well as the unfortunate animal.
June 16th – Jockey Meadows is an under-appreciated Site of Special Scientific Interest between Walsall Wood and Shelfield. Naturally wet, the grassland here is lush and verdant. There are many rare species here and it’s a vital green lung for the north Walsall area. Sadly, it’s often the prey of flytippers and scramblers, but on the whole it’s a peaceful oasis that’s well worth a visit.
June 15th – I’ve still yet to catch the linesmen in action, but work to install the new overhead lines over Mill Green continues apace. I’m not clear here if the cables in this shot are being pulled through to the ground drum or the other way around. Up near the pylon hanger, there seems to be the remnants of something attached to the lines, which is possibly the scars of a pair of Stockbridge dampers, so I think these are old lines being wound to the ground. This work continues to captivate me.
June 15th – It’s the time of year that the poppies bloom, often as pictured here, in fields of oilseed rape. The beautiful red makes for a dramatic contrast with the background yellow-green substrate. This field, at Lower Stonnall, is rather gorgeous.
The image of the hedge-line also demonstrates the importance of hedgerows in combating soil erosion. The old guys who planted those knew exactly what they were doing.
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