Tag: 365daysofbiking

October 7th – up on Cannock Chase for the first decent ride in a while. Due to bad weather and work commitments, I haven’t got out so much this year, which saddens me. But this was worth waiting for. There’s a bigger post from this journey over on my main blog – but the Chase, together with Shugborough and it’s environs, were just pulling on their golden autumn jackets. Superb. I must redouble my resolve to get out more…

October 7th – Bridgtown, in Cannock, is a quirky little place. In essence, a former mining community, it exists as a little island all on it’s own. Although it is part of the wider Cannock conurbation, it seems to be separate, and has idiosyncratic, brick-paved side streets full of great victorian terraces. It also a a very distinctive range of shops, and I’ve never worked out quite why. Here, you can buy vintage clothing, Landrover spares, traditional sweets, or a tarot reading. This is a great place, and I’ve never worked out why it’s so unique.

October 6th – A run out to Lichfield, and a return at sunset. Coming over Aldershawe at Wall, I noticed the column of steam generated by Rugeley Power Station indicating there was little wind. The sun sank lazily, silhouetting the Brownhills and Cannock Chase horizon. Humpries House was a visible landmark, as were Castlefort and the eastern slopes of Cannock Chase. An angry looking black cloud hung central for a while, but didn’t deliver on it’s threat. This was a dramatic, beautiful evening. But it was cold, and the shivers in my back told me winter wasn’t far away.

October 6th – Just by Festival Gardens, on Queen Street in Lichfield, screech the bike to a halt. Fallen treasure! The conker collection instinct is as strong in me now as it was when I was a child. I don’t think any red-blooded British male can pass a fallen horse chestnut without thinking twice. There’s something about that shiny brown nut in a soft, but spiny husk that’s just wonderful.

Ah, I remember when love was nothing but a handful of sticky conkers. Come to think of it, it hasn’t changed much…

October 5th – One of the best things about autumn is the sudden and prolific emergence of the mycology.  Yesterday, there was nothing of note on this twenty-metre long, 1 meter wide grass edge in Telford. Today, after a cold, damp night, two different types of puffballs, tricholoma,, field mushrooms and tough-shanks variously peppered the damp grass. What isn’t often appreciated about these curious fungi is that they aren’t separate organisms; the surface growth is merely a bloom for a surface, or subsurface organism. How cool is that?

October 4th – I was accompanied by a forgotten companion on my return from work this evening – nightfall. It was 6:45pm, and nearly dark when I arrived home. A little bit of a shock to the system. This made photography difficult, as I hadn’t got a tripod or gorillapod on me. Sweeping down a dark and deserted Maybrook Road, the dusk made for an interesting shot with the camera sat on a street cabinet. This part of town – on the Walsall Wood/Brownhills border – always seems deserted. Even in the daytime.

October 4th – Telford Railway Station is a wreck right now, and has been for some time. I’ve always disliked it – not unpleasant in the daytime, with easy ramp access, but at night in winter it’s cold, lonely and desolate. I still wince at memories of waiting for late trains here in the freezing, snowy run up to Christmas 2010. The whole site was due a refurb, but half way through, the builders who won the contract went bust. Allegedly now restarted, I’ve yet to see anyone on site actually doing anything. A disgrace.

October 3rd – The mystery of the bean field is solved. As I cycled past this evening, the farmer was harvesting the crop of beans I considered last week to be lost. I’d been musing on exactly how they were harvested for a while, and it seems the technique is identical to how much local maize is harvested: the whole plant is mown off at about six inches above ground, then chopped into rough chunks by the machinery, where presumably, it’s loaded into a trailer. I’d assume the beans a therefore used as fodder.

That’s a very big machine. Impressive stuff, and a mystery no more.

October 3rd – Out to Telford at dawn meant cycling to Shenstone Station. The weather has been really variable this week, the one constant factor being the northeasterly wind that’s blown me to Shenstone in the morning and home from Walsall at night. Just as this is the time of year for good sunsets, it’s also the time for decent sunrises, too, although I’m usually too rushed to photograph them. Today was a good example – a gorgeous sky heralding a temperate day. Coupled with the shinbone skyline, it was beautiful.