Month: June 2012

June 17th – Birdsfoot trefoil is one of the great flowers of summer for me. Often called deer vetch or eggs and bacon, it grows in sandy soils in rough grass and heathland. This example, at Anglesey Basin, near Chasewater, is in fine health. This is one of the yellow blooms that dapples verges and meadows this time of year, along with ragworts and buttercups. It’s normally a mixture of yellow and crimson blooms, but there doesn’t seem to be much of the crimson component this year. I’m wondering if there’s a climatic effect evident there…

June 16th – First time I’d been to Walsall on a Saturday for over 18 months, and I quickly remembered why. It may have just been the rain, but the lack of anything decent in the town centre, the grinding misery of the shoppers, and the general air of shabbiness the place wears just ground the joy out of me. I walked up Chuch Hill, and then cycled to Caldmore to pick up my favourite sweets and savouries, then back to Crown Wharf and Maplin. Not finding what I was after, I went for a coffee in Starbucks, and locked my bike to the railings out front, as many others were doing. As I left the retail park, I noted with a wry smile that the cycle parking provided – a large quantity of Sheffield stands – was unused. Hidden away, with no CCTV cover, you’d be mad to lock your ride there. These town planning types just don’t get it, do they?

June 16th – I ad to go to Walsall to pick something up from the central sorting office. The weather was atrocious – windy and rather wet. I bit the bullet at lunchtime and pulled on shorts – wet legs dry quicker than wet trousers – and actually found it to be warm and oddly pleasant. I cycled along the canal, and noticed the flowers were in fine form, if a little battered. Orchids and waterlillies graced the Wyrley and Essington, whilst in the Goscote Valley upon my return, dog roses and sweet peas grew in scented abundance. Not a bad ride, all in all.

June 15th – The signal box at Chasewater Heaths, on the preserved coal line around Chasewater, has an interesting provenance. It originally stood at Hademore, near Fisherwick, east of Whittington, Staffordshire, where it controlled the level crossing. Upon expansion of the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Mainline, two more tracks were laid though the site of this box, and the crossing removed. The signal box was shipped, almost intact, to Chasewater Heaths to control the sidings proposed there. I have to say, I preferred it in white, rather than mustard brown… many is the time when I shouted conversation with the signalman as I waited at that crossing. Sadly, it it’s new home, it seems unmanned.

June 15th – Chasewater was deserted as I cruised round in the early evening. I’ve noticed in recent years that the park has a burgeoning rabbit population, and when there’s few folk around, they come out of hiding and take the air. This fellow was on the dam by the Downes house. I hope the engineers are keeping an eye on the rabbits… badgers caused the collapse of a canal in Llangollen a few years ago. Mind you, knowing badgers, they could have used explosives or anything. They’re truculent little buggers…

June 15th – It had been a grim, wet, blustery day. I was travelling far away, and couldn’t use the bike, which made me feel like a cheat. When I finally got home that evening, the weather cleared around 7pm. The wind dropped, and the showers became more sporadic. As a penance, I decided to get the shopping in from Morrisons in Burntwood, which meant a spin up a very wet canal and over Chasewater. The air was clear as I checked out the view to Sandhills and over Home Farm… I love that tree. It’s like my seasonal barometer.

June 14th – Just around the corner from the fascinating building featured in my previous post is this magical, and very Leicester view. Across the playing fields and pitches of the Nuffield Heath and Wellbeing Centre, part of the University, one can see the wonderful rooftops of Clarendon Park and Knighton. I last took in this view last November, and the seasons have changed its character, but not the essential beauty. I rather like this city. 

June 14th – I have no idea what the origins of this building are, but I suspect it to have been a school of some sort. Today found me in Leicester… cycling back to the station from the outskirts, I headed past the University. Just before it, on the junction of Wellford Road and University Road, stands this fascinating building. Clearly expanded during it’s lifetime, it’s now the Freemans Common Health Centre, and I think it’s rather wonderful. Particularly eccentric is the rather odd bellcote and weathervane. Positioned somewhat peculiarly, to me it looks precarious and about to overbalance, although upon close scrutiny it’s clearly as sold as a rock. 
A fine building. 

June 13th – Foxglove is one of those odd flowers steeped in half-truth and folklore. I spotted this lone one this evening as I winched myself up Shire Oak Hill near Sandhills.Poisonous? Yes, very. Deadly? Can be, particularly the young leaves. Beautiful? Certainly. I adore foxgloves. They should never be picked, and children should be taught to avoid them, but they have great medicinal use, as well as having the more sinister reputation that once christened them ‘dead mans bells’. Digitalis produces medically active compounds that can be made into cardiac drugs, and also a steroid used in the detection of DNA and RNA. Truly a remarkable plant.