BrownhillsBob

#365daysofbiking These lanes were mine

April 19th – The ride took me down Hobs Hole in Aldridge, over Wood Lane and Lower Stonnall, and around by Stonnall Church. It was a beautiful afternoon, and nature did it’s best to entertain me and lift my mood, which wasn’t all that great with an attack of IBS.

Nature succeeded. And there was barely a soul around.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I hate the lockdown, although I understand how necessary it is. But I’m loving these quiet lanes.

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#365daysofbiking Ducks deluxe:

April 19th – Another first for the year on a short afternoon ride out to test the bike and legs. I’d had a go at sorting a creak in the bottom bracket, but it was still grumbling.

Although bright and sunny, there was still a chill in the air.

On the canal in Walsall Wood, my first ducklings of the year – seven balls of mallard fluff squeaking and doing their best to stick with proud mum.

This is always such a joy to see. Look forward to more of it, and goslings, too.

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#365daysofbiking Flower station

April 18th – Also on the MacLean Way – more traditional beauty is to be found on the site of Brownhills Railway Station, just in central Brownhills, behind the Smithys Forge pub on the old track – primroses. Loads of them.

I don’t know how they got here but they are truly stunning.

Well worth look.

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#365daysofbiking Pieces of the night

April 18th – I took a ride down the McLean Way – the cycleway that runs down the old South Staffordshire railway line through Brownhills, being converted by Brian Stringer and pals from Back the track.

From what was a rubbish filled cutting, I must say the volunteers have done very well. It’s a credit to them and their hard graft.

What I’m liking also is the work of the graffiti writers who ply their trade at night under the A5 bridge. There is some seriously impressive artwork down there.

It’s great to see such affection for the NHS too.

Clearly a very talented artist.

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#365daysofbiking Supervision

April 17th – Near Newtown, just near the A5 bridge on the canal, another wonderful sign of spring on a grey afternoon: The swans are nesting here.

This is the first nest I’ve seen in this spot and I think it’s probably the mystery couple from last year who suddenly seemed to appear with hatched chicks, which I think had been incubated in a nest out of sight behind a moored boat.

I noted one bird was supervising while the other did the work. I have no doubt that if the one watching could have folded its wings, it would have done…

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#365daysofbiking Home front

April 17th – A quick ride on a day that had been decent, but started to darken as I left the house in the afternoon, and actually came on to rain as I arrived home.

I nipped to the canal at Ogley Hay to check out the oilseed rape at Home Farm: Still not quite fully out but looking beautiful all the same.

But what really shocked me was my favourite tree: The handsome, beautiful horse chestnut on the skyline near the farmhouse. I tell the seasons by that tree and it’s rapidly come on to leaf.

A new bright green jacket smartly adorning an old friend.

Spring is definitely on her throne!

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#365daysofbiking On the waterfront

April 16th – Life may be on hold at the moment, but Brownhills has been steadily changing and improving for a few years now, and I can’t see that process slowing up much, even with the current unpleasantness caused by coronavirus.

A few short years ago the view up the canal from Silver Street towards Catshill Junction would have been blighted by the empty market place and waste ground where Silver Court Gardens once stood, a set of five tenement blocks that really were quite grim.

But now the view of houses and trees in blossom over limpid, peaceful water is a world away from those bad days.

And I continue to watch my community evolve.

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#365daysofbiking Fine and dandie

April 15th – I’ve noticed over the last few days that one of the least noted wildflowers is so far having a very good year. Yellow, rather beautiful, and dreadfully overlooked, the dandelion is a staple of verges, lawns, hedgerows, edgelands and anywhere there’s a scrinite of nutrition to be extracted from soil.

A lovely tenacious plant, I love to see these fine flowers; yet I feel I’m probably one of the very few to ever appreciate them.

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#365daysofbiking Peared down

April 14th – On the way to work on a sunny morning, I passed the new pond at Clayhanger on the canal. I noticed that the pear tree there is currently in blossom.

Pear blossom is subtly different to apple, which comes a bit later and has pink tinges, and to cherry, which is generally smaller, denser and more uniform.

The white flowers against the blue sky again made for a brilliant contrast, and improved my mood no end.

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#365daysofbiking In my solitude I am least alone

April 13th – Dusk, on the canal. The bite of a chilly spring evening. The sound of wind, waterfowl grumbling and no traffic at all.

I realised that for the first time in weeks, nobody else was on the canal towpath. I was alone.

Since the lockdown, people have taken to canals for exercise and walking in a way I’ve never seen before – which is good: I really want people who don’t know the beauty of local canals to come and share it.

But it’s still nice to find myself here, alone, but accompanied by my thoughts and feelings. It it at moments like this I feel least alone.

I stood enjoying it for quite a while.

Realising I was shivering, I got on my bike and rode back home.

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