Tag: black

May 31st – There’s living in that little face. Watching me from near Middleton Bridge, this inscrutable black puss was high on the embankment. A charming little cat, not moving o really acknowledging my presence at all. 

Wonder what happened to the ear-tip? I bet there’s a story there…

May 27th – He was there again, the cat I notice a lot in the waterside gardens at the back of Barrow Close. Black and white, not very old, he spends hours watching the water.

I wonder what he sees, and how he regards the far side of the water he’ll only ever reach when the canal freezes in winter? It must be like a forbidden paradise to him.

He’s a lovely lad.

May 23rd – On my way home, I rode past the JCB plant at Rochester. The huge factory has a landscaped park in front of it containing large lakes fed by the river Churnet. On one, I was lucky enough to spot the two resident black swans, who are noted for their presence here.

Australian imports, these birds are uncommon and very grumpy that I wanted to photograph them. I love the white stripe on their bills.

A lovely thing to see.

August 18th – He was only a kitten, really; a sharp eyed, keen whiskered black and white mog exploring his world. This is where I saw the smokey grey pedigree chap a few weeks ago, just on the far side of the canal at Barrow Close in Walsall Wood. 

Puss didn’t seem bothered about me, and was initially hunting something in the water. Foiled, he took a drink instead.

A lovely lad with a smudge-black nose and a remarkably long tail. Oh, to be an inquisitive young cat in summertime…

August 5th – Another saying my Grandfather used to use a lot was ‘It’s always a good year for something.’ On this, the old man – who lived life much more connected to nature than I – was bang on. Every year, every season, is detrimental to something and benificial to something else.

This year we have an absolute wealth of early blackberries. They, sycamore,  horse chestnut and beech appear to have done very well indeed. Oak and fruit seem to have had a very bad year. This is the first acorn I’ve seen – last year, the boughs were heavy with crab apples, damsons, cherries and acorns. This year, very few. Rowan, Hawthorn and cotoneaster seem to be doing reasonably well, though.

I guess it’s just how the weather falls. One late frost and the fruit crops are ruined…

July 30th – Interesting to note the cat population seems to have woken up since the temperature dropped a little. I see a lot of tails and bums sticking out of hedgerows on my travels, or furry balls asleep on house-steps, cars and shady corners. Often I’m glared at from under parked cars or over the canal from the opposite bank.

I adore cats. 

This midnight lady (I think it;s a lady) was photographed loafing in Chandler’s Keep, as I passed on my way up to Chase Road.  Wonderfully black, and those whiskers! I feel sure she could well be a witches familiar…

That’s one classy cat.

February 16th – It was a gorgeous day, and a reminder of what this country is like when the sun shines properly. With the sun on my back, I rode out at lunchtime to check out the floods of the Tame Valley, around Hopwas, Elford and Croxall. 

I was expecting the Tame to be in flood. This wasn’t the case at all – the Tame had clearly stayed in-channel, and although brisk, the Footherley, Black and Bourne brooks were all below capacity, too; although we’ve had record rainfall, it’s clearly been spaced out enough to avoid the horrific scenes locally that we saw in 2007. 

Of course, other areas have not been so fortunate.

What is evidenced is wind damage. At the hump bridge on Gravelly Lane, Footherley, tree debris blocks one arch, and a whole tree lies similarly before the Elford Bridge. Clearing the detritus from trash screens and under bridges is an essential part of waterway maintenance, and this will have to be removed.

The technicians that do this work have plenty to do in the coming weeks – their work is essential, and I wish them well.

February 13th – An unlucky day for a number of reasons, but at least it was dry and relatively pleasant. The wind had dropped, and on the way to Telford, looking up from the platform at New Street Station, a beautiful blue sky.

Riding from the station at Telford, I was fortunate enough to spot the black ice – frozen surface water like glass, the width of the cycle path uphill from the station, dusted with what looked like the residue of a brief snow shower.  

Had I not noticed, I could have gone a purler there – one of my nine lives, i think.