30daysofbiking – Page 4 – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

April 16th – Jockey Meadows between Sheffield and Walsall Wood are also greening well – and early – this year. As I rode past on a warm but breezy evening in pleasant sunshine, I noticed that way over by the marsh, red deer were grazing – which must be a sign that the sedges and moss they like to eat best must be growing again.

Jockey Meadows are always beautiful, and unexpectedly so, wedged in between two urban areas – as a notified Site of Special Scientific Interest they’re well worth a visit – but take some wellies!

April 16th – The greening continues. Darlaston is getting really beautiful right now. In a week or two, the whole of Victoria Park will be Verdant, and it will once again seem a million years since winter.

And so the seasons wheel continues to turn…

April 15th – Shelfied, just on the marooned triangle of land where there was once a railway bridge, a beautiful display of daffodils, better than ever I remember them.

Every year these gorgeous flowers drag me into spring. They are a joy to the heart. My best wishes and thanks to those at Walsall Council who planted and look after them.

April 15th – On my commute home, on the Walsall Canal. in a disused, fenced-off wharf arm off the mainline, a mother swan watches me carefully from her nest in the reeds.

It may look a bit polluted, but she’s fairly safe there: there’s a palisade fence and factory yard around, and it’s a brave fox would try to get to that nest.

Security. It’ll be interesting to watch her progress.

April 15th – Zipping over to Tipton and Great Bridge on a sunny spring afternoon in Moxley, closing the Black Country Route I looked right to see Moxley Church, marooned by urban development, but still presiding over the urban chaos beautifully.

A wonderful afternoon, and a joy to be out.

April 14th – You think there’s nothing that could match the daffodils. Then you look upward.

My gosh, the cherry blossom was astounding. Pure white and pink against a blue sky – and again, those nascent leaves, bringing warm days and lovely afternoons.

Excellent.

April 14th – A sunny, warm moring. A run through a Wednesbury Industrial Estate, to come upon a grass bank covered in hundreds of daffodils.

I’m no Wordsworth, but I think I know what he meant.

Few spring sights are this joyous. Beautiful, and good for the soul…

April 13th – Only mid April, yet the canal at Lindon Road, Brownhills is greening up well. On a cold evening as I headed on an errand up to Ogley Hay it was cold, but there is spring everywhere. I can’t really get over how quickly and seamlessly we seem to have progressed to this. It doesn’t seem five minutes ago it was Christmas.

Who knows where the time goes?

It would be nice if last week’s sun and warmth came back to see us, though…

April 13th – Spotted in passing, this black and white little cat was sheltering from a chilly breeze in the lee of a large plant pot on the canal bank at Walsall Wood. Try as I might, I couldn’t attract his attention: he was either studiously ignoring me, or watching the birds…

April 12th – I didn’t make it home before the storm broke.

There was quite a degree of precipitation. The geese didn’t seem too bothered, though…