June 4th – The flower display is continuing. So much stuff is appearing now it’s very hard to keep track, but canalside and meadow orchids are looking beautiful, dog roses and x-eye daisies all caught my eye on my commute.
There really is no better time to be on a bike, right out here in the outdoors during great sunny weather.
I have waited so long for this.
June 2nd – Coming back from Longdon, this was a good chance to see what Dark Lane was like this days. Dark Lane runs from Borough Lane to Thorley’s Hill near Goosemoor Green, and was a lane that always suffered from storm silting, being a remarkably deep holloway.
The bottom end of Dark Lane serves a farm, but further up the hill, it’s closed, and for several hundred metres it’s now been reclaimed by nature and coated in thick mud and vegetation.
It was a lovely place to explore, and brought back memories of when it was open. But if you go and look, be prepared for the mud. It’s deep.
June 2nd – A visit to Draycott is always a good opportunity to do Marchington, Woodroffes and the Needwood Valley through Newborough and Hoar Cross. This time I returned through Rowley Park, the Ridwares and Armitage, which made a change.
At Marchington, the frankly ugly 1740 church is still a remarkable piece of architecture, complete with the curious, over-door war memorial. The church at Woodroffes is also still beautiful, sat in splendid isolation under Marchington Cliff.
The ride ended with a spectacular sunset enjoyed on the old Hit Bridge at Armitage.
Another 50 miler, and a great weekend’s riding.
June 3rd – I made it to Draycott in the afternoon, after a very fast ride up the A515, and found the usual assortment of unusual cars, motorbikes, tractors, stationary engines and yes, steam traction by the… erm, truckload.
Such events rarely show you anything new, but they are lovely to see the labour of love that maintaining and running a vintage machine – be it steam or petrol – really is.
The Deluxe Trabbant was astounding, and the chance to guzzle ice cream, chat geeky stuff with people who love mechanical engineering like I do was wonderful.
Always a lovely event, and there will be another in October.
June 2nd – A ride that turned out nothing like it was meant to, but still very good. First weekend of June is always the steam fair at Klondyke Mill in Draycott in the Clay, near Sudbury, so in the afternoon, I was headed there.
Coming down a long hill far side of Yoxall on the A515, the return spring in the front brake calliper overheated, buckled and bound in the disk.
It came out after a struggle lasting well over an hour – thankfully, patience and care meant neither the calliper nor disc were seriously damaged, and I had spare pads and a spring. But it meant I was far to late to justify the entrance fee to the fair, so I went to Sudbury, had a pint in a lovely beer garden, then explored Scropton, Hatton and the Dove Valley on a beautiful summer evening.
It was 55 miles, and not a bad ride overall.
June 2nd – Heading out on a dull but warm afternoon, the eventual aim was Draycott in the Clay steam fair at Klondyke Mill, but fate had other ideas. On the way, I called in at Chasewater to see if it was filling the canal. It was, the valves were open.
There has been a leak in the canal near Little Bloxwich that has lost a huge amount of water into a culvert beneath the canal, and the Canal and River Trust had said initially the drop in level was due to Chasewater’s supply being cut off by Staffordshire County Council, which was clearly arrant nonsense.
The Trust finally released an emergency stoppage notice and began damming off the leak that very afternoon.
Chasewater is still very full, and when called upon will need to fill the five inches or more lost from the canal. An interesting situation to watch.
June 1st – A grey day, largely but very humid. Storms were expected that never arrived, and the air of humid frustration was pervasive throughout the day.
Another blossom is out now, to add to the list – elderflower. So this weekend I shall be out with the sack, collecting some for a relative to make wine and cordial. Not too many though, as we need to remember the black-crimson fruit that will be used to make excellent wine in autumn.
A nice find on an unremarkable, draining day.
May 31st – My attention had been drawn to comments online that the canal water level had dropped significantly in the last couple of days, so I investigated – measuring from the weir bar to the current level was 123mm. Nearly five inches of water lost since Sunday when the canal was in heavy overflow.
Considering the length of this canal, this is a huge amount of water gone.
Subsequent enquiries with the Canal and River Trust suggest that they were unaware the valves had been turned off at Chasewater by Staffordshire County Council (see here) but I’m unconvinced the water would drop so fast considering the conditions.
I’m wondering if a downstream lock sluice was accidentally left open, perhaps.
It is said the situation is being rectified by pumping water in from Bradley, so it’ll be one to keep an eye on I think. A mystery.
May 31st – A very poor photo with lousy focus, but another first for the season: My beloved beauties the orchids are coming into bloom.
They don’t last long, so keep an eye out on canal embankments, meadows and wetlands. We have a number of varieties, and these mall flowers are always tiny perfection.
The slug seemed to be enjoying them too – this example was on the bank of the new pond at Clayhanger.
May 30th – A sign of the advancing season is the collection of seeds for a little guerrilla planting. Clayhanger Common has large patches of cowslips like these going to seed – the seeds are not ready yet. But when the heads dry and turn golden, I’ll be out shaking a few into a back for the precious black seeds within, which I’ll then spread to other areas that might benefit from a bit of cowslip love.
That’s how most of these delightful yellow flowers got onto Clayhanger Common in the first place…
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 