BrownhillsBob

#365daysofbiking The world spins, me a apart of it:

November 1st – My worry was misplaced. I had good news from the hospital, and rode gently back, taking in the air which with my inbuilt mood filter switched off, was now sunny and cheering.

What better time to enjoy the parks of Darlaston, Victoria and Kings Hill? What better time to sit and appreciate the leaves, the dog walkers, the birds and my beloved Black Country?

It made a change to have lightness in my heart. That’s been a rare thing of late.

#365daysofbiking Wellness:

November 1st – I’m running behind at the moment, please bear with me.

I had to go to the hospital for an appointment, and went from work mid morning. I was apprehensive, tense, and sad. I looked back down the Walsall Canal from where I came and noticed the curious, dull sunlight on the yellowing trees.

I felt the very chill of autumn in my bones there and then. However beautiful, autumn is always, always melancholy.

dry-valleys:

“This is without doubt the most impressive and complex prehistoric monument in the area” Byron Machin.

Reading Byron Machin’s book on stone circles led me to Arbor Low, on my first visit since 2002, where a snowstorm didn’t stop me appreciating what this place has to offer.

What the stones were put here for were originally and whether they stood or lay is hotly debated, but we know they were quarried from a nearby limestone payment and have thus been exposed for thousands of years even before their planting my Neolithic peoples in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BC, and that there were once many more stones before the stripping of the site by local farmers.

The ritual uses of the site can only be guessed at, but Machin offers a tantalising glimpse; “it appears that most of the stones had their weathered sides facing inwards and their smooth cut sides facing out. The reasons for this are unknown”.

The first excavation was led by Thomas Bateman in 1848; he also excavated (1,2) Gib Hill, a nearby burial mound closely tied in with Arbor Low. By this time the stones closely resembled what is here now, though we don’t know what its prior state was; Samuel Pegge said in 1783 that the stones were “formerly erect, now flat” though this is not known for sure.

Very early on the site received statutory protection, and has been in state care since 1884, now a Grade II scheduled monument looked after by English Heritage. A further excavation in 1901, led by Harold St George Gray, revealed male human remains here, the man ceremonially buried by those who had built the henge originally.

This is one of a great chain, next leading on to the Bull Ring and Nine Ladies, and I look forward to connecting it.

#365daysofbiking A treat:

October 31st – Happy Halloween!

In The Butts, Walsall, a house decorated for the occasion. The more you look, the more you see. I particularly like the cat pumpkin.

I’m generally indifferent to this particular festivity, but this snatched shot on the way home captured the warmth beautifully.

#365daysofbiking Mystical:

October 31st – Passing Victoria Park on Station Road, Darlaston on a beautiful day on the cusp between autumn and winter I’m reminded how lovely this place really is.

I’ll never tire of that view of the Mystic Bridge and the leaves turning.

Summer may be long since gone but there is still plenty of beauty around.

#365daysofbiking Parked:

October 30th – My peaceful retreat Kings Hill Park is looking gorgeous in it’s autumn palette right now and I’m really enjoying it.

Sadly, the flowers haven’t been so good this year, and I fear cost cutting at Walsall Council may have been to blame, but none of that detracts from the essential beauty of this peaceful, beautiful urban oasis, where I often stop, separate myself from the workaday stress and have a brew and a think.

This place will always be mine, whatever the season.

#365daysofbiking A goldmine:

October 30th – A shoutout here for a little shop in Darlaston I love – Mindful Gifts. It’s a charity shop, but not as we know it Jim: It’s a veritable treasure trove of music, books, ephemera and great miscellany at really low prices.

Mindful Gifts is run in aid of folk with dementia and it a really wonderful charity -and there’s always a buzz around the shop. Find out more here.

Do pay a visit if you’re in Darlaston.

#365daysofbiking Stark:

October 29th – I took a stop at an old night-time favourite, for old time’s sake.

Clayhanger Bridge and the overflow still captivate me at night. So many possibilities. So still. So starkly beautiful.

The G1X seems to like it.

I hope the darkness will be my friend this year.

#365daysofbiking Night falls:

October 29th – Travelling back home in the first of the end of British Summer Time commutes is always hard: I wasn’t late, but it was dark, and cold. I got passed by two gritters. Progress was slow.

Winter is upon me.

This means rejigging the photography a bit, as it’s had to find subjects in darkness, so the activity tends to shift to morning, or during errands or trips in the daytime.

Oh well, it’s here. Let’s do this.

#365daysofbiking Finding what’s important:

October 28th – I was lost. The week had been stressful, Saturday had been a disaster in many ways and I felt beaten, down and hopeless.

I did what I always do at times like this – wrapped up warm, got on my bike and hit Cannock Chase.

I found rutting deer at Brocton Field; marvelled at the sunset over Sherbrook Valley, laughed at a retriever playing fetch in the water at Stepping Stones. I raced down to Seven Springs, listened to owls calling in Abrahams Valley and rode the night forest braking sharply for foxes at Brindles Heath.

Some days. the forest is all you really need, and it does just what you require.