Author: BrownhillsBob

I told the truth - but told it bent. Wandering around bemused and ranty since 2007.

May 13th – I was still feeling groggy but it was a lovely day and the outdoors beckoned, so I headed tentatively for a ride, not expecting to get far.

It was a lovely 52 mile ride, actually, fluid and enjoyable, but sadly dogged with mechanical issues. Time to break out the spanners and do a little maintenance I think.

I headed out to Hints through the backlanes of Stonnall and Shenstone, then on to Hopwas, Wigginton, No Mans Heath, Netherseal, Overseal, Coton in the Elms, Catton and back home through Huddlesford and Lichfield.

I haven’t visited the church at Wigginton for a very long time – it’s a remarkable place: Foursquare, built of very red, red brick. The main church dates from 1777 but the Spital Chapel dates from 1272. This is a very historic place.

The flowers are out, hedgerows are verdant and the landscape a patchwork of gold, white and green.

Hard to think that just a few weeks ago the Tame in the same spot was filling the flood channel.

David Oakley will be pleased to see Chilcote Pumping Station remains pretty much unchanged as viewed from Honey Hill. I adore that view.

A great ride that was much better than expected.

May 12th – And talking of spring and summer colour, nestling in green nowhere, as Vivian Stanshall put it. Just tens of feet form factory yards, a cycle train on a short bit of old railway in Brownhills between Engine Lane and the old Cement Works, or Slough Bridge.

One of those moments where you stop, look and catch your breath it’s so gorgeous.

Even though I felt like shit, I was happy and honoured to see this.

May 12th – Another dull day and one on which I wasn’t feeling so well, so just a short circuit of Brownhills for a couple of errands.

I travelled on the canal past Home Farm at Sandhills, and noted that the crops there were really coming on now. Not just the bright yellow of the oilseed rape, but the shimmering green of what I think is a feed of barley was gorgeous too. Within a few short weeks we’ve gone from winter to late spring/early summer and it’s been like firing a starting gun.

Even on a dull day with an uncomfortable stomach, just the colours of this season are enough to cheer me up.

May 11th – A dull day without much to commend it, and a rather nagging wind. Coming back through Brownhills along the canal in the evening, I noticed in the very beginnings of a rain shower that the canal was developing one of it’s periodic organic scums – this time it looks like a mixture of willow fluff and may blossom petals.

This comes also at a time when many junctions, bends and winding holes are also covered with floating, dead reed stakes and leaves, making the canal as a whole look pretty untidy.

It’s nothing to worry about though; such detritus will disappear as quickly as it came, as it does every year. It’s just curious while it lasts

May 10th – Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?

Returning after work to Brownhills down a sunny, limpid canal, I felt a wee bit like I wasn’t alone.

And then I spotted ginger, watching me from behind the reads by the new development at Silver Court Gardens.

That’s one gorgeous little cat.

May 10th – Passing on a flying visit to Telford, the new footbridge project is progressing really, really well.

Beside the westbound platform, all the piling and excavations are finished now, and construction of the bridge section to go over the railway continues, while the footings and steelwork for the pier and access ways are beginning to show the final outline now.

Next to the eastbound platform, a forest of steel girders are being piled into the ground for the pier that side.

This really is a most fascinating project.

May 9th – Between the Black Cock and Clayhanger Bridges, not far from the new pond, an apple tree on the canal embankment is in bloom.

If smells absolutely beautiful and is a veritable riot of flowers.

I love how the dominant colour is pure white, but look closely and the buds and petal fringes are pink.

One of the most lovely sights of the season.

May 8th – Without my camera which I stupidly left behind, grotty phone photos of a bait of embankment bolstering by the Canal and River Trust in Aldridge at Stubbers Green between the factory units on Brickyard Road that back on to the canal, and Lathams bridge.

There may well be an issue there, as there was in Walsall Wood a few years ago when the embankment on the same side was built up around the Black Cock and Coppice Road areas.

I wonder in they’re settling still or if this is just a safety margin thing?