365daysofbiking – Page 159 – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

March 21st – Leaving my camera at home made a bad day for photos – but the day was dull anyway, so at least not much was lost.

Coming back through Brownhills, though, I noticed the sky was that gorgeous azure blue of late spring dusks, and the moon was a pleasing crescent above the still skeletal trees.

I feel certain we’ve seen the last of winter now – and I’ve probably just doomed it, but there you go – and I’m really eager for sunny, warm days.

With the clocks going forward on Sunday it seems like a real possibility and not just a distant dream now.

March 19th – The thaw was thankfully quick, and the day felt positively warm and sunny as aI zipped about the Black Country on errands.

I was only when I got back to work and the bike started to dry out did I realise the toll the snow had taken.

That bottom bracket won’t be long for the world now with all that grit. My bikes will need some real TLC when the better days arrive.

March 18th – I thought Saturday had been grim. I had no idea just how unpleasantly bitter the wind – for that’s all it can be – would make a short ride on Sunday.

I pottered up to Chasewater again. Setting out in a partial thaw, I was surprised that within 30 minutes, package was hardening on roads and tracks and everything was freezing again. We’d had a fair old snowfall and Chasewater was beautiful for it – but it was very hard going.

Trees at the lake edge on the causeway wore jackets of pure ice and the boardwalk over Fly Creek was flooded, as it always does when the main lake is full. Coming back i had to leave the canal towpath due to the deep drifts.

I haven’t known a winter this combative and protracted for years. When I got in the cold was physically painful. I’ve had enough now.

March 17th – Coming back to Brownhills down The Parade, the snow started. As it turned out, it was in for the night and we ended up with and unexpectedly heavy fall.

It was bitterly cold, and as nice as the common looked, I wanted to be at home in the warm. I don’t know if it was the particularly biting wind or just my hunger but this cold seemed far more harsh than the -8 degrees we’d had a couple of weeks ago. Since it was nowhere near that cold now, I have no idea why that was.

Come on Winter, you’ve said your piece. Sod off and give spring a chance.

March 17th – I’ll be honest here, I can only fit ten pictures in a post so I include two more shots of the deer. But the other two are of the spillway at Chasewater, fulfilling it’s purpose. With the main reservoir overflowing with rain and meltwater, the surplus has formed a stead river along the spillway and ins flowing into the 1980s era storm drain under the Victorian brick-lined overflow. The new system conducts the flow into the crane brook, a tributary of the Footherley/Black/Bourne Brook, itself a feeder of the Tame.

The storm system is documented in this post on my main blog here.

It will be interesting to see how long this situation is allowed to continue, as the reservoir owners Staffordshire County Council are currently at odds with the Canal and River Trust, who expect access to the water it contains for maintaining the level of the local canals.

I must try and get to the Crane Brook downstream and see what the flow is like before it stops.

March 17t – Up at Chasewater on a bitterly cold late March afternoon, snow was periodically falling, but my discomfort was sidelined by the antics of two groups of red deer.

I first saw a small group of five coming from the gorse scrub by Anglesey Basin, from where they trotted along the towpath to the dam cottage garden. Here I left them, but something spooked four and they ran back to the scrub, leaving just the one stag contentedly eating plants in the cottage garden.

As I explored the spillway, I noticed the rest of the herd loafing at the north end of the dam, so I ambled up. They drilled over Pool Road, leaping the fece and mooched over to the scrub around the derelict house.

Not once did they appear nervous of me, more curious as to my behaviour. These deer – I’m sure it’s the group that have been around this spot for weeks. now – seem to be regarding me as a familiar now.

A splendid, cheering sight on an otherwise grim afternoon.

March 16th – There may be a return to winter forecast for the weekend, with impending snow and freezing temperatures, but on the canalside near the Watermead Estate in Brownhills, it’s spring and therefore reconstruction time again.

At dusk, the swan couple who have nested here in previous years were busily engaged in rest building, following their springtime imperative. Yes, it’ll be cold for them for a couple of days, but they know good weather and warm days are coming and they must prepare for this year’s brood.

I wish them warm days and good luck. I shall, as usual, watch with interest.

March 16th – I had to nip up to Burntwood after an early return from work, and I took a muddy, wet canal towpath up to Chasewater.

My favourite tree at Home Farm, Sandhills seems to be getting into a spring jacket ever so slightly, and the greens were just a bit brighter than a week ago.

Ogley Junction bridge is now finished, and it looks great. The metalwork and bridge deck have been superbly refurbished, but it’s sad the brickwork didn’t get any love. Maybe that’ll be a separate job.

At Chasewater, I was surprised to see the reservoir overflowing. It’s normally allowed to fill and overflow at this time of year, but the valves are still closed and the spillway is flowing with water. In light of the dispute ongoing between Staffordshire County Council, the owners of Chasewater and the Canal and River Trust who use the water it contains, it’ll be interesting to see how long the lake continues to overflow.

March 15th – I was on the canal near the new pool at Clayhanger as night fell.

The sky was impressively foreboding and conditions fairly still. I love the fluid, elastic quality to dusk at this time of year. It really is beautiful.

I love how my variably-timed evening commute changes subtly from mostly dark to mostly in the light about now; I’m already looking forward to the start of British Summer Time in a week’s time and all we need now is some clearer, finer weather.

Despite the velvet, descending dark, it feels good to be emerging into the light.