May 27th – One of the routes I took yesterday is a very old, unmade track. Salt Street connects No Mans Heath and Norton-Juxta-Twycross. It’s rough, unmade, and passes a waterpower and one of the microwave transmitters of the cold-war communications system. A great, hilly ride, it’s a blast on a warm, summers evening. From here, I came over Honey Hill near Clifton, and back through Whittington, Wall and Lichfield. A great day.
May 26th – In the pretty Derbyshire village of Lullington, right in the centre of the village, is this grizzly curiosity. One of the houses has a garage built on the edge of the street, and high up on the wall, the owners mounted two animal heads. I’m not sure if they’re some kind of deer or what, but the ravages of weather and time have stripped the skin from the skulls, and now, it’s just those that remain. A horrid thing, and I can’t imagine what the people who retain them are thinking, to be honest. A very peculiar sight in an otherwise beautiful place.
Thanks to Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler, who spotted these first in his Panoramio gallery some years ago.
May 26th – A great ride today in blazing sunshine which I recorded in this post on my main blog. But while heading out, I noticed that these old cottages in Footherley Lane, near Shenstone, had at last received some attention. All the surrounding scrub has been cut down. Hopefully, this is a precursor to someone actually turning them back into homes. Derelict for since I was a child, there’s no excuse for allowing good house to just crumble, unoccupied and unloved. The people who did so should hang their heads in shame.
May25th – Also wearing a fine summer coat is the avenue to Home Farm and Lime Barns at Sandhills. Last time I pictured this, the trees were bare and stark; today, on a fine, arm summer evening, it was a green tunnel, the leaves rustling beautifully in the breeze. How I’d love to cycle down here… but sadly, it’s a private road.
May 25th – Nipping down to the chip shop in Stonnall for a Friday treat, I took a loot at the early summer view towards Lichfield from Shire Oak. Beautiful as ever, the change in foliage and colours perfectly complimenting the elegant spires of the Old Lady of the Vale. I adore this view, and could study it for hours on end.
May 24th – Loss seemed to be a bit of a theme. I saw with some sadness that the Red Lion at Longdon Green had shut again. This pretty pub, on a lovely traditional village green, should have been rammed, the grass in front teeming with folk enjoying the summer. Sadly, it has closed in a dispute over £17,000 of rent claimed by the owners that the tenant is disputing. Recently, the Swan With Two Necks up at Longdon has closed too. It’s a bad time for country pubs, this one only having reopened last July. I love this place. Let’s hope it can reopen soon.
May 24th – I was sad to note today that the Rugeley canal swan brood I pictured on Sunday is down to six cygnets from seven. Probably picked off by a brave fox, mink, stoat or weasel, perhaps even a bird of prey, one must remember that this is why they have large clutches of eggs. Sad as it is, nature red in tooth and claw. A sobering thing indeed.
May 23rd – You guys are going to get so fed up of my summer pictures, but frankly, I don’t care. It’s gorgeous out there, and despite my hay fever, I’m loving every minute. Returning from Tyseley yesterday evening, the back lanes of Stonnall and little Aston were warm and full of summer. Birds flitted in and out of the hedgerows, rabbits dwelled on verges and in the shade of hedges. Fair weather cyclists were out in force. This is the season I live for, and it’s finally here. Get out and enjoy it, it’s gorgeous out there.
May 22nd – Summer is really on her throne now, I think. Returning home that evening, I came from Blake Street through a green, hazy wonderland. The oilseed rape is still bright yellow, the hedges and copses dusted with white blooms of cow parsley and hawthorn blossom. The air is heavy with pollen, bee buzz and insects. Near lower Stonnall, the first hay crop has been cut. It’s left to dry in the fields, then turned and dried some more before baling. It’s been a long time coming but this is just wonderful.
Mayy 22nd – A glorious summer day that found me in Telford. Taking the long way round, I went through the town centre, and reflected on the nature of urban design and town planning. It’s easy to see on a day like this what the designers of the concrete and glass monoliths were aiming for, with images of downtown Seattle springing to mind. But the pedestrian distances between these edifices are huge, and never straight. Hard work even in summer, walking in Telford on a dark evening is frightening, lonely and seems to go on forever.
Telford’s failure of town planning is that the buildings were allowed to dwarf the people, and car routes were more important than those for pedestrians. Too many dark corners, not enough sky. A direct descendent from Birmingham’s failure in the sixties, this one is more nuanced, and largely of the 70s and 80s. It’s about scale, place and ownership of space.
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