June 15th – It had been a grim, wet, blustery day. I was travelling far away, and couldn’t use the bike, which made me feel like a cheat. When I finally got home that evening, the weather cleared around 7pm. The wind dropped, and the showers became more sporadic. As a penance, I decided to get the shopping in from Morrisons in Burntwood, which meant a spin up a very wet canal and over Chasewater. The air was clear as I checked out the view to Sandhills and over Home Farm… I love that tree. It’s like my seasonal barometer.

June 14th – Just around the corner from the fascinating building featured in my previous post is this magical, and very Leicester view. Across the playing fields and pitches of the Nuffield Heath and Wellbeing Centre, part of the University, one can see the wonderful rooftops of Clarendon Park and Knighton. I last took in this view last November, and the seasons have changed its character, but not the essential beauty. I rather like this city. 

June 14th – I have no idea what the origins of this building are, but I suspect it to have been a school of some sort. Today found me in Leicester… cycling back to the station from the outskirts, I headed past the University. Just before it, on the junction of Wellford Road and University Road, stands this fascinating building. Clearly expanded during it’s lifetime, it’s now the Freemans Common Health Centre, and I think it’s rather wonderful. Particularly eccentric is the rather odd bellcote and weathervane. Positioned somewhat peculiarly, to me it looks precarious and about to overbalance, although upon close scrutiny it’s clearly as sold as a rock. 
A fine building. 

June 13th – Foxglove is one of those odd flowers steeped in half-truth and folklore. I spotted this lone one this evening as I winched myself up Shire Oak Hill near Sandhills.Poisonous? Yes, very. Deadly? Can be, particularly the young leaves. Beautiful? Certainly. I adore foxgloves. They should never be picked, and children should be taught to avoid them, but they have great medicinal use, as well as having the more sinister reputation that once christened them ‘dead mans bells’. Digitalis produces medically active compounds that can be made into cardiac drugs, and also a steroid used in the detection of DNA and RNA. Truly a remarkable plant.

June 13th – I’d been in Tyseley for a meeting, then hopped back up the Cross City Line to make an appointment in Lichfield. Cycling back, the weather, which had been pretty agreeable, turned quite grim and it started to rain. The countryside looked so green, and the views were unexpectedly cinematic with a sudden rain-haze softening outlines and changing the sky to darker and darker shades. Luckily, I got home before the heavens really opened. 

Can we please have a bit of summer? Just for a bit? 

Jun 12th – Chasetown Memorial Park is a place I hadn’t noticed before. Passing at 6pm on a dull weekday evening, I caught the sight of a bowls match in progress, and stopped to take a shufty. I love watchig bowls, and I think its decline as a sport played in municipal parks is terribly sad. Like village cricket, it’s a gentle, genteel thing, and very relaxing to watch. This seems a well kept green and I did like the Memorial Park. The war memorial itself is sombre, as you’d expect, but beautiful. Chasetown is often a place ignored passing through, but there are gems here, and I’m sure, more I’ve yet to discover. Right next door is the wonderful former mining college, now community hub, and a fine facility indeed. Inside is a small but touching display of mining mementos and ephemera.
If these photos seem a bit… odd, it’s because my camera battery went flat and died, so they were taken on my phone. 

June 12th – I believe this delightful yellow flower to be a flag iris (although I could be wrong). At this time of year, they flourish on the water margins of canals, ponds and reed beds, bringing a dash of yellow to the waterscape. I love these flowers. This patch, near Anglesey Bridge on the canal near Brownhills, seem to get larger and more impressive every year.

Warsaw => Walsall: Cycling along the canals: Walsall-Wednesfield-Darlaston-Walsall

warsaw-walsall:

I can’t seem to be able to free myself from that pile of work brought from Poland so all the running & cycling escapades are whimsical and unplanned, occurring when I happen to finish something or am too annoyed to work anymore. Anyway, it has got its merits as there are more things to…

Warsaw => Walsall: Cycling along the canals: Walsall-Wednesfield-Darlaston-Walsall

June 11th – Summer’s cauldron continues to simmer. I noticed whist climbing the Black Cock Bridge in Walsall Wood that the wild honeysuckle – or woodbine – I talked about choking the lupins was growing over the guard rails on the souther flank of the bridge. A riot of colour, these gorgeous blooms, when fully open, will smell wonderful. I never thought I’d see such a thing growing wild in this post-industrial landscape.