Month: June 2016

June 30th – As we approach what is a very damp midsummer, the flowers and greenery are beautiful this year, even if the weather isn’t. Although the early flush of blossom and spring colour has now passed, there are now more gentle delights if you look carefully. 

The thistles are just emerging now, in several forms and the self-heal has been in bloom for a week or two now, with it’s tiny, but beautifully coloured flower heads. Also remarkable and spotted today near the cycleway at Goscote, this wonderful orchid.

Purple definitely seems to be the colour of the moment.

June 29th – Some tools are small, cheap and indispensable, and this little red wonder is just such an item. 

This is a Rixon & Kaul ‘Spokey’ spoke key. I’ve had a fair bit of trouble with broken spokes lately (due to damage, not bad wheels) and a good spoke key makes replacement much easier, as it did when I got home this evening.

This little tool costs about a fiver, and fits the spoke nipples positively, without damaging them, and provides a large, easy lever for gentle adjustment.

It’s also small and light enough to pop in the saddlebag toolkit for emergency adjustments on the road.

A real cycling design classic.

June 29th – I find myself running errands to Tipton a lot lately, which I don’t mind at all – it’s a decent ride from Darlaston, and there appear to be plenty of curiosities to investigate when I get there.

In Coronation Gardens, for instance, there’s a statue to a prizefighter who holds legendary status. Wiliam ‘Tipton Slasher’ Perry was one of the greatest local pugilists of all time, and held the title of English Champion from 1850-57; he was a noted character and the pub he used to hang out at – the nearby Fountain – was centre of his empire and is still a shrine to the fighter today.

William is regarded now as one of the greatest sons of the town, despite dying an alcoholic.

Today, his statue stands in classic fighting pose, his familiars pigeons. I wonder how many pass by and not know who the statue is remembering?

June 29th – On the canal near the Black Cock Bridge at Walsall Wood, work appears to have been undertaken today. 

I have no idea what. It was clearly over when I came through, which makes the graffiti-style approach to warning about it wrong; how do you know the warning is current? At least you can remove signs when the job is done.

The spelling was very non-conformist, so I decided to preserve it for posterity.

June 28th – Oh dear. A short train journey mid-afternoon, and I found myself sharing the bike space with this nice, well engineered Specialized hybrid commuter bike.

Nothing wrong with it, and it looks like a nice ride – decent tyres, nice wheels and gears – but oh my, those mudguards are annoying my snobby sense of order.

Clearly fitted as an aftermarket add-on, the spacing between the guards and wheels is… all over the place. Also, the carrier tilts up to the back of the bike, and I notice another of my pet hates: seat post mounted rear lights – easily obscured by closing or objects on the rack.

Sometimes when you see other people’s bikes, it’s hard not to whip out the tools and start fixing them up…

June 27th – Near Catshill Junction, I watched momma coot feeding her chicks – presumably the second set of the year. She was diving, then returning to the surface and feeding the little ones from her beak. It was fascinating.

The chicks still look as Phil Griffin so memorably put it, like ‘badly knitted moorhens’, but they are very cute all the same.

It’s also interesting to be reminded of how strange adult coot feet really are. Curious birds, coots.

June 27th – One of the most notable changes with the cleaning up of the local canals since my childhood has been the explosion in water lilies and other water flowers that were unimaginable on the waterways of 40 years ago. Where once the water was polluted, filthy and lifeless soup, it’s now clear, limpid and at this time of year, covered in the pinks, ivories and yellows of various lilies and flag irises. 

These flowers were near Clayhanger Bridge.

June 26th – Cutting across the common, there are plenty of flowers in bloom, and the bees are busy. Blues and purples seem the order of the day, with late forget-me-nots, purple comfrey vetch and others all showing well. 

Also rather lovely are the dandelions – not just those flowering, but those gone to seed, too – such lovely, natural engineering.

June 26th – Passing quickly through Brownhills to catch the Canalside Festival, I noted how lovely the planters were again this year for Brownhills in Bloom. The annual entry to a competition, the baskets and tubs are filled and planted by a mixture of traders, volunteers and folk from the Brownhills Town Centre Partnership.

They do cracking work and on behalf of Brownhills, I’d like to say thanks to everyone involved.

June 25th – Swans are inscrutable, they really are. On the Nine-Foot Pool at Chasewater, with the level still just about overflowing, a pair of birds sleep on the concrete spillway weir, seemingly oblivious to the natural plant detritus around them.

To me, the spot they doze in looks uncomfortable, chilly and precarious, but to them, it’s clearly just the right place to get some shut-eye.

Occasionally, I realise how much I don’t know about wildlife.