bridge – Page 22 – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

June 24th – On my return, I was not alone on Friday afternoon waiting out a sudden squall under a bridge in Moxley.

It sums up accurately how I felt.

June 14th Every year, a couple of weeks after the yellow water lilies flower, out come the white ones, and this year there’s a fine display at Bentley Bridge.

Caught just after a rain shower, these looked splendid scattered with raindrops.

they always look so perfect, they could almost be made of wax.

June 6th – On the canal near Clayhanger, it’s good to see the lupins out. A sign of summer, they spread welcome colour to towpaths, embankments and wastelands across the country.

The flowers are so beautifully constructed, and the bees seem to love them too.

May 31st – The season of the dog rose is upon us. You can keep your fancy hybrids, your blobs of colour on thorny sticks; give me the colour and scent of a wild rose any day of the week – bringing colour in an uncontrolled riot to towpaths, hedgerows and edge lands all over.

These were just by the canal in Walsall near Bentley Bridge. A joy to the heart.

May 30th – I wasn’t well today. The long ride of the day before had maybe taken a toll, but I didn’t sleep well, and suffered a migraine in the morning. The day was a bit wolfish, too, with a strengthening wind, so I confined myself to a trip to Chasewater and back over the common and canals mid-afternoon.

I haven’t been this way for ages, and I’m sad, as it was absolutely beautiful; Brownhills wears it’s spring jacket beautifully, and the buttercup meadows on the farmland to the rear of the old Rising Sun pub have to be seen to be believed; but also at The Slough, the hawthorn blossom is beautiful.

I still felt damned ropey, but at least I felt better about myself.

May 24 – On the cycleway between Walsall and Pelsall, the former rail line crossed Fordbrook Lane in Pelsall. Even when this was a rail bridge, it suffered problems with vandals dropping rocks onto the cars below; finally, Sustrans – the charity that maintain the cycleway – have erected a fence to alleviate the problem.

It’s a complex structure, and I wonder how effective it’ll be. But seeing some of the other odd things they’ve got up to lately, nothing surprises me.

May 10th – What a horrendous day of commuting – heavy rain in both directions left me soaked with frayed nerves.

Such was my desire to escape the traffic on the way to work, I hopped on the canal knowing how bad the mud would be – but I was past caring.

In the warm, actually not unpleasant rain, the canal rang with raindrops, almost musical, and the swans at Bentley Mill Way didn’t seem to mind.

Hope it’s a bit drier tomorrow.

May 9th – It’s a waiting game, still; I was hoping we might see some cygnets hatch over the weekend, but it seems not. The swans at Bentley Bridge wait patiently, whilst keeping a watchful eye on the odd bloke with the bike…

April 12th – On the Walsall Canal where the Anson Brach used to spur off between Bentley Bridge and Bentley Mill Way Aqueduct, the swans who I think nested in the abandoned basin last year are nesting anew.

Sadly, the nest isn’t well protected this year and I think an enterprising fox or heron – who fish here regularly – may end up with cygnet tea.

That’s if the phantom bread-flinger does’t chock the wee ones – sadly, the message that bread isn’t good for waterfowl doesn’t seem to be reaching all quarters. I know these folk mean well, but it’s not good for them.

Please, if you feed them, seed or greens instead.

March 17th – Another cold commute, although less windy. It really seems to have become more wintry of late, but much drier, which is welcome.

The light nights continue to please me, and even leaving work a little late I managed to cross the Black Cock Bridge as the dusk fell. A beautiful but musty, overcast dusk that glowed a soft purply pink.

It’s great to be riding in the light again.