December 13th – Returning late again from Birmingham, this time to Shenstone, back to my beloved rural station. The weather was damp, but warm again and the riding was easy, which is just as well as I was exhausted.
This is the busiest pre-Christmas I’ve had in a long, long time: normally about now I’m winding down and getting stuff ready for the new year. This year I’m doing none of that yet.
I’ll be so glad when I finish work.
December 13th – On the canal near Bentley bridge, the gorse (or is it broom? I’m never sure) is coming into flower and bringing a splash of welcome colour ro a drab, damp landscape.
I love to see this flower – it carries me through winter and reminds me it won’t be long until spring flowers return. It also won’t be long now until the shortest day and once more, the opening out will commence again.
I can’t wait.
December 12th – On the way back into Brownhills, the air was a little clearer, so I stopped on Anchor Bridge for a classic nighttime Brownhills photo.
As well as playing about with aperture settings of late, I’ve discovered exposure compensation. Must say I think the darker image is the better of the two.
One day I must read up on what all these adjustments actually do…
December 12th – I can’t lie, it was an absolutely foul day for commuting; in the morning the temperature hovered around zero degrees and there was a surprising damp chill to the air. By my return in the evening, the temperature had risen and if felt warm again, but there was a constant foggy, misty drizzle.
It was bad cycling weather. I’d had to nip into Brum as I often do at this time of year to drop a bottle off. The trains were bad on the way back, so I ended up getting a train to Four Oaks and riding back from there.
Only 7 more working days before a holiday. I think they’re going to be long ones. Hope the weather settles in time for Christmas.
December 11th – After a couple of years in limbo, I’m sad to note that after all the fuss and brouhaha, the old boating lake at Chasewater as just been filled in with earth and grassed over.
Staffordshire County Council, the park’s owners, couldn’t be doing with cleaning the water, so in a fit of typical reductive thinking, they drained the pond, left it empty for a couple of year and just filled it with earth that’s now turfed.
With no drainage in the concrete liner it will be interesting to see how this survives. One would hope they drilled the base. But maybe not. They haven’t even kerb edged the grass properly, so it will just die back and recede.
A botched solution to a botched problem that was really quite simple: it just needed good housekeeping.
December 11th – Nipping up to Chasewater to check out the Christmas Fair there, I spotted a familiar duck in the reeds near the Chase Road bridge.
It’s Mrs. Muscovy, the Newtown One. On the run (waddle) for nearly a year now, I thought the foxes must have had her as I’d not seen her for ages.
I’m glad to see this curious, singular, solitary duck is still with us.
December 10th – In a bizarre twist of events, in an already hectic, busy day, I had to go to Leicester to collect something from a shop. This pre-christmas errand wouldn’t have been so bad, but I had to pop in to Aldridge on the way, and the weather was awful.
It started to rain before I set out – steady, but light. When I got to Aldridge, the errand I was on there proved to be pointless, so frustrated, I headed for Blake Street to get a train to Birmingham. The train, unusual even for a pre Christmas one, was heaving. I’d tangled with the crowds going to an Aston Villa home game.
Dishevelled and irritated, I hopped on a warm, peaceful train to Leicester, and as I found my way to the mall where the shop in question is, the rain was very nearly stopped. I locked the bike up, and completed my task.
Re-emerging from the electric glare of the Mall it was pouring with rain. I returned through a beautifully glistening city, alive with interesting bikes, shops, lights and a rather wonderful but slightly wonky Christmas tree. I was wet, but Leicester was gorgeous. I love that place, I really do.
Returning from Blake Street was a trial. There was local flooding. The Chester Road and Brownhills High Street were awash with standing water the traffic wasn’t handling well.
But I’d completed what I needed to. I felt better. Mission accomplished.
December 10th – Whilst in Brownhills checking out the Christmas Market event, I popped over to Clayhanger Common to check out the rosy earthstar colony growing there.
These remain the most odd, fascinating fungi I have ever seen, and despite my initial concern, they are showing beautifully this year.
When ripe, the central sphere crumbles and the spores spread on the wind.
So pleased to find what is a relatively rare fungi locally.
December 9th – Spotted as I stopped in Stonnall for a couple of items on the way home.
I’m glad they qualified that – can’t have people thinking the real Michael Jackson was coming to Stonnall. What with him being deceased, and everything.
Seriously though, if you can carry off a tribute to the odder fifth of the Jackson 5, I salute you. That must be a tough gig. Literally.
December 9th – Near the canal at Moxley, Darlaston, I found these fascinating fungi – I’d stopped to undertake a quick mechanical adjustment, and had I not been crouched fiddling with the bike, I’d never have seen the rosy earthstars and what I assume from guides is some kind of pterula multifida living well in the under hedge leaf litter.
It just goes to show what wonders go unseen in our everyday environment.
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