March 3rd – A bad day when it barely stopped raining all day.

I had to be in Birmingham early, and took short rides in the morning and early evening. The weather was foul, and my mood little better.

Thankfully, good news, a mind at rest and the company of a very good friend helped no end.

Some days make you glad they’re over.

Those rugby posts

Hi folks…

It seems the Wednesbury rugby posts are the tallest in the world, and thanks for all the help – they are indeed in the Guinness Book of Records. As to how they came to be so, Wednesbury and Moxley are, of course, historically renowned for the production of metal tube, with Newman, Phoenix and other companies formerly being based here. 

So what better example of technical prowess than the world’s tallest rugby posts?

The things I learn here with your help… thanks to you all for the help.

March 2nd – As I said yesterday, the season of transition is upon me; and that includes the period of travelling – on good days, at least – in the golden hour.

I often talk about this magical time, when just approaching sunset the light becomes soft, suffused with pink and gold and changes everything it touches to a precious, rare jewel.

There are few better places to catch such a time than Kings Hill Park and the view of the Twin Sisters. Bathed in the evening sun, they looked even more majestic than usual, but so did the park, and the sunset on the way home along the canal wasn’t too shabby, either.

This’ll do.

March 1st – For me now is the time of the half-light. My morning commutes are well into light now, and most welcome that is; but evening commutes are mostly on the cusp of day and night, light and dark, optimism and pessimism. 

This commute started in a grey, overcast light with a strong tailwind and and the threat of rain that arrived as I rode the canal back to Brownhills. The sky though, transformed from a grey murk into a remarkable, beautiful, luminous blue which captivated me.

Even though it was raining, I couldn’t miss capturing this.

Within 10 minutes, the light had died and night had fully fallen – but I was so glad I caught the moment.

February 28th – in the swamp at the end of Victoria Park in Darlaston, just past the old railway bridge on the way to Kings Hill, a surprise today in the rain: The blackthorn is flowering.

Always the earliest tree blossom, it’s a lovely sight and on this wet, miserable day I was so pleased to see it.

Interesting too to see the blackthorn bush with an alder growing intertwined around it.

February 28th – After some grim weather over the last few days, I thought I’d seek out a weather app for the Edge, the Garmin GPS based bike computer I use. I’ve tried Accuweather, and it’s really rather good.

Accuweather loads via the Garmin IQ App Store, and uses a paired iPhone or similar to access internet weather data; it then gives what I’ve found to be fairly accurate predictions of wind and precipitin for the next two hours. It’s in an easy to read format, and if free of charge.

Being a widget, it’s accessed by swiping sideways from the pull down status screen, which had me fooled for a bit. It only loads data when accessed, so it’s power and phone plan friendly to boot.

It accurately predicted the rain that dappled the screen…

February 27th – When I was a youth, exploring the local lanes and byways on my treasured Peugeot racer, I rarely, if ever saw birds of prey. I might hear the odd owl, or spot a kestrel or two, but raptors were rare things indeed.

Over the interceding 35 years, the rabbit population has recovered, and the buzzards and other large hunters have steadily been gaining traction. I now regularly see buzzards wheeling over the Black Country, often being mobbed by crows and magpies. Kestrels hover over motorway embankments, gimlet eye peeled for anything small and squeaky. Peregrines hunt pigeon in central Birmingham, Walsall and Lichfield. Patches of plucked feathers attest to the feeding of sparrow hawks.

It therefore gave me reason to smile that this fine bird was perching in a thicket near Wall Butts at Muckley Corner. A splendid bird in fine condition, and showing well that not all of our progression in conservation is wasted.

February 27th – Another wolfish day, but with a softer wind. A horrid morning commute – into a headwind with driving rain – was not a great start to the week, and through the day, the yin and yang of rain and shine battled across the sky, even resulting in one point at a fall of snow.

I had to go to Lichfield on an errand and I successfully dodged the rain, returning fortuitously in a gorgeous semi-golden hour through the backlanes of Wall.

The fields are emerald green now, with fresh crops growing well; the sky was pleasingly azure between the clouds, even at gone 5pm and spring does seem to be ready to assume her throne.

Not a bad end to a day that didn’t start with a great deal of promise…

February 26th – The water level at Chasewater is lower than I’ve seen it for a while. Interestingly, rather than open the valves fully, there’s a good flow into the canal, and the balancing culvert between the Nine-Foot pool and Spillway has been opened, allowing a steady stream of water to flow into the Crane Brook via the drain system under the canal.

I understand why the level is being dropped – with the dam being permeable, if installing drains you want the installation to be as dry as possible – but I’m puzzled by the method. It has, however, been convention since the original dam works to allow the reservoir to overflow every spring, so perhaps this is to irrigate the spillway marsh as it would be normally.

Interesting too to see the white scale around the lowered waterline. It that salt, or something else?