beautiful – Page 34 – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

March 13th – I know I featured this the other day, but it is a view that’s quite short-lived and one I love lots. Having been to a meeting in Birmingham in the afternoon, I came back to Shenstone as usual and hit there in a sort of pink, gentle golden hour. I was only about 15 minutes from sunset, and the pink cast was from a dying sun, but it flattered the dark sandstone of St John’s church tower beautifully, it’s gargoyles proud and prominent as ever.

Also worth noting in these shots are the rooftops, gables and chimneys of Shenstone, a wonderful array. How lovely that a village should grow around the hill in that remarkable way, with the remains of an early church, and a still functioning Victorian one immediately adjacent.

March 8th – And returning down Lynn Lane, a pretty good sunset, too.

Hard to imagine this time last week we were enduring temperatures of -6 and lower. I’ll never get bored of the British weather.

March 8th – Passing again from Shenstone in daylight, I stopped to take in The Little Holms, the western end of Shenstone’s Lammas Land, a public space that runs along the whole upper side of the village from rear the pumping station to the Birmingham Road, along the Footherley Brook.

This lovely spot gives a great view of the Victorian pump house, still in use with twin 200 horsepower electric pumps. With a storage reservoir underneath, this facility feeds Barr Beacon reservoir, and keeps Walsall and North Birmingham fed with clean water from it’s boreholes.

Brought into use in 1892, it pumps water from a 131 feet deep, 12 foot diameter well, with a 597 foot heading. The steam pump was retired in 1957, and now a 60 horsepower submersible well pump tops up a 10,000 gallon tank under the pumphouse.

After treatment there, water is pumped by 200 horsepower pumps up to Barr Beacon reservoir for distribution. These pumps can supply 1,500,000 gallons per day, and are backed up by emergency generators.

The cottages were originally for the workers, but I think they’re private now. I love the attic conversion in the end one – that gable wind is gorgeous.

March 7th – The weather is much warmer now and I’m desperately looking for signs of a nascent spring, which aren’t very forthcoming yet but the daylight is really lengthening now.

On the cycleway at goscote, some lovely colour in the moss and lichen growing on the tree, which I think is probably dead – making me wonder if the moss killed the tree or is a result of the decay?

Whatever, it’s fascinating.

March 5th – With warm weather and the snow disappearing, I couldn’t resist a visit to Kings Hill Park to gain some inspiration from the daffodils there, which I have to say were looking splendid.

Hopefully, that will now be the last of the cold weather and we can fully welcome a verdant, colourful spring.

However, one must never forget that the heaviest snows for years came in 2013 at the very end of March…

February 25th – I raced back to Chasewater to catch the sunset as I had planned to do they day before, and although inevitably the sunset was not as dramatic, it was very beautiful and calm, but my hands were frozen. It really was very cold indeed.

I noted while there that Chasewater is now about 150mm from full, as it usually is at this time of year. It will be interesting to see what happens this year – if the reservoir is allowed to continually overtop or if the dispute with the Canal and River Trust is resolved and the water is released into the canal.

February 23rd – If the mist of the previous evening had been beautiful, it was nothing compared to the beauty of the following morning.

I passed through Mill Green on the way to the station heading for an appointment in Telford, and this bitterly cold but sunlit and beautiful morning was quite the tonic I needed.

The ice was challenging in places, but used to the cold after a chilly season I rode carefully, really enjoying the scenery.

Yes, this is definitely why a ride a bike to work…

February 22nd – Frustratingly, I had to pop into Birmingham on my way home, and caught the train back out, but it was gratifying to find myself cycling back from Shenstone in almost daylight, in a misty, lovely sunset.

It’s gone cold again, but this still felt quite spring-like.

February 17th – Out just as the sun went down on an errand in Burntwood, hoping to catch a decent sunset as I returned via Chasewater, and thankfully I wasn’t disappointed. The day hadn’t been great and a number of things had gone wrong for me, but this was a really uplifting thing and I was glad to witness it.

With sunsets this good, can spring be far away?

February 4th – A bitterly cold day. I rode out to Hammerwich to check out a grave for an article on the blog. I came upon these fellows in the churchyard.

They are legion. They are spring.

A nice surprise.