Tag: 365daysofbiking

#365daysofbiking Wellness:

November 1st – I’m running behind at the moment, please bear with me. 

I had to go to the hospital for an appointment, and went from work mid morning. I was apprehensive, tense, and sad. I looked back down the Walsall Canal from where I came and noticed the curious, dull sunlight on the yellowing trees.

I felt the very chill of autumn in my bones there and then. However beautiful, autumn is always, always melancholy.

#365daysofbiking A treat:

October 31st – Happy Halloween!

In The Butts, Walsall, a house decorated for the occasion. The more you look, the more you see. I particularly like the cat pumpkin.

I’m generally indifferent to this particular festivity, but this snatched shot on the way home captured the warmth beautifully.

#365daysofbiking Mystical:

October 31st – Passing Victoria Park on Station Road, Darlaston on a beautiful day on the cusp between autumn and winter I’m reminded how lovely this place really is. 

I’ll never tire of that view of the Mystic Bridge and the leaves turning.

Summer may be long since gone but there is still plenty of beauty around.

#365daysofbiking Parked:

October 30th – My peaceful retreat Kings Hill Park is looking gorgeous in it’s autumn palette right now and I’m really enjoying it.

Sadly, the flowers haven’t been so good this year, and I fear cost cutting at Walsall Council may have been to blame, but none of that detracts from the essential beauty of this peaceful, beautiful urban oasis, where I often stop, separate myself from the workaday stress and have a brew and a think.

This place will always be mine, whatever the season.

#365daysofbiking A goldmine:

October 30th – A shoutout here for a little shop in Darlaston I love – Mindful Gifts. It’s a charity shop, but not as we know it Jim: It’s a veritable treasure trove of music, books, ephemera and great miscellany at really low prices. 

Mindful Gifts is run in aid of folk with dementia and it a really wonderful charity -and there’s always a buzz around the shop. Find out more here.

Do pay a visit if you’re in Darlaston.

#365daysofbiking Stark:

October 29th – I took a stop at an old night-time favourite, for old time’s sake.

Clayhanger Bridge and the overflow still captivate me at night. So many possibilities. So still. So starkly beautiful.

The G1X seems to like it.

I hope the darkness will be my friend this year.

#365daysofbiking Night falls:

October 29th – Travelling back home in the first of the end of British Summer Time commutes is always hard: I wasn’t late, but it was dark, and cold. I got passed by two gritters. Progress was slow. 

Winter is upon me.

This means rejigging the photography a bit, as it’s had to find subjects in darkness, so the activity tends to shift to morning, or during errands or trips in the daytime.

Oh well, it’s here. Let’s do this.

#365daysofbiking Finding what’s important:

October 28th – I was lost. The week had been stressful, Saturday had been a disaster in many ways and I felt beaten, down and hopeless.

I did what I always do at times like this – wrapped up warm, got on my bike and hit Cannock Chase.

I found rutting deer at Brocton Field; marvelled at the sunset over Sherbrook Valley, laughed at a retriever playing fetch in the water at Stepping Stones. I raced down to Seven Springs, listened to owls calling in Abrahams Valley and rode the night forest braking sharply for foxes at Brindles Heath.

Some days. the forest is all you really need, and it does just what you require. 

#365daysofbiking Not forgotten:

October 28th – I was charmed and humbled passing through Hednesford on a much needed restorative ride to Cannock Chase to note the main square has been decorated with knitted and other hand made poppies and material for Remembrance. 

It’s really very impressive, and sobering. It’s beautiful to see so many displays of Remembrance in towns and villages at the moment, particularly on the centennial anniversary of the end of the Great War.

My thanks and compliments to those who took time out to make and arrange this display. Real community in action.