BrownhillsBob

#365daysofbiking A new posse

August 3rd – I’ve always loved how the growing Canada geese clutches move into adulthood and still stay in loose family groups as they mature.

I encountered this particular group of beaky blinders at Ogley Junction, but they hatched near Catshill Junction and have been pottering around the local canals ever since. They are notable for being particularly intimidating, with mum (or dad, I never thought to ask) once leaping on my back as I was riding and pecking my head furiously.

This aggression has been passed to the next generation and one or two always take a lunge and hiss defensively at passers by, whatever their mode of transport.

Now in adult plumage, I’m fascinated by the one that appears to be suffering premature greyness and wonder if I should get it a bottle of Grecian 2000 or maybe just a black sharpie pen…

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#365daysofbiking No place like home

August 2nd – One of the more surprising developments happening locally at the moment is the new care home being built on the Chester Road at Stonnall, on the site of a former concrete block factory and quarry.

The home – which is a large, impressive and has the appearance of being very well built has risen over winter and the preceding spring and seems to be nearing completion.

This doesn’t look to be your average granny farm, but rather a specialist care facility for older folk with particular challenging needs and I think it’s the kind of thing that is needed here with our raging population – and the jobs it provides will be welcome, too.

Part of the development includes road safety improvements here on the Chester Road, which is good to see.

I wish the proprietors and future residents well in this new venture.

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#365daysofbiking The golden hour

August 2nd – This week has been all about seasonal markers, and this evening as I left Shenstone for Stonnall and home, the harvest was well underway.

The fashion for huge, cylindrical baling seems to have ceased and we seem to be back to the more space efficient (and stable!) rectangular ones.

As ever, the machinery, synchronicity between drivers and sheer power of the operation is breathtakingly impressive, and a reminder that the countryside is still a huge, open air factory floor dedicated to our sustenance.

Always impressive to watch.

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#365daysofbiking From tiny acorns grow

August 1st – The various varieties of wasp gall that form on oak trees are necessarily seasonal. Rosy, marble and apple galls form from wasp eggs injected into leaf notes, so grown from them in spring and early summer, and by now are largely vacated and spent.

Knopper and artichoke galls form from eggs laid in acorn buds, corrupting the fruit into a gall from the crop, so don’t start appearing until late summer. Right now they’re developing well, forming a protective, curiously shaped home for the wasp larva to hatch in and develop.

Galls are fascinating things for sure, and are markers of the passing year.

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#365daysofbiking Budgie bliss

August 1st – Groundsel is a common but interesting weed. It spreads and is host to a number of diseases and lungi that affect other plants, like rust fungi and black root rot, but is also supportive of small songbirds and a host of Lepidoptera.

Groundsel is thought to be mildly toxic to humans.

it’s been known for years that cage birds like canaries and budgerigars love groundsel (and chickweed) and as a child I was often sent to pluck some from the hedgerows for grandad’s budgie, which would devour any proffered without hesitation.

It’s a very hardy widespread weed, and is so common and unassuming, I think it largely exists unnoticed. However, if you actually stop to study it, it’s rather pretty.

Weeds are always worth a look – they can be surprisingly beautiful.

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#365daysofbiking Playing pontoon

July 31st – Returning home via the canal at Silver Street, I noticed that the Pier Street Bridge had pontoons and scaffold beneath – it seems to be being repainted, which I’m pleased to see.

It was painted in 2014 and a lot of the paint flaked off, but I had thought with current austerity measures there would not be the money to sort it out. I’m glad to note I was wrong.

I hope they return the support arches to their original white – they looked much more impressive in the original colour scheme.

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#365daysofbiking The secret of pie

July 31st – A drier day, at least. After the deluge of the previous day, it was good to feel the landscape slowly drying in the morning sun.

The lousy summer has at least been good for the fruits: All along the waysides from Brownhills to Darlaston, fruit ids swelling and ripening, from apples to blackberries.

Autumn will soon be upon us – how quickly this season and year have passed.

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#365daysofbiking Wetter than an otter’s pocket

July 30th – Tuesday was another washout: It rained on me on the way to work, and on the way home. It seems to do little else at the moment, bad weather is perched upon the Midlands summer like a vulture.

l experienced the heaviest rains I’ve ridden in for years; the roads were rivers and I headed home in fear and soaked through to the skin.

On the canal near Catshill Junction, the Canada geese didn’t seem to care. I loved the wee fellow seemingly sitting on his backside.

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#365daysofbiking Across the rooftops

July 29th – I came back from New Street to Shenstone, a run I do less these days since the Chase Line upgrade made those trains comparatively less crowded.

I forgot how much I love coming home through Shenstone, a great station to start and end any journey from.

I note that of the twin towers of St Johns, only the modern Gothic horror is visible above the rooftops; the older, earlier tower – the last remnants of a more handsome church – is shrouded by trees as is usual in summer.

I guess I’ll have to wait until autumn to see the twin towers again.

I’ve always adored this view in summer or winter…

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#365daysofbiking And then, there were three

July 29th -An old boss used to get really annoyed with me if I came in after a wet weekend moaning that the following Monday morning weather was sunny, because I was stuck at work.

He’d point out I’d be even more miserable had the commute been wet and cold.

He was right.

I noted that the robins pincushion galls I’d found a couple of weeks ago had expanded in number to three, and that they were growing well, showing lovely colours in the strong morning sun.

I felt sad I was indoors for most of the day. But old John was right, it was a whole bunch better than had today been like Sunday.

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