Tag: Brownhills

#365daysofbiking Feet first

August 5th – Birdsfoot Trefoil is a staple throughout summer from the earliest of the season until autumn. It dapples lawns, verges and meadows with yellow and red patches, and is one of my favourite flowers.

Not many folk though realise how this plant got it\’s unusual name – it’s because the seed pods look like a bird’s feet.

This gorgeous flower is so very ubiquitous that it’s one of the few wildflowers I love that I’ve never bothered to collect the seed of and spread.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2ZZ77MS
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Skimming the light

August 3rd – I got to Chasewater late on a generally overcast afternoon, and was surprised to find the light there magical.

I watched, as Joni Mitchell put it, the water-skiers glide and was captivated by the sunbeams through the break in the cloud.

Even the dullest days can provide moments of breathtaking beauty.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2MX5Z8Y
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking A new posse


August 3rd – I’ve always loved how the growing Canada geese clutches move into adulthood and still stay in loose family groups as they mature.

I encountered this particular group of beaky blinders at Ogley Junction, but they hatched near Catshill Junction and have been pottering around the local canals ever since. They are notable for being particularly intimidating, with mum (or dad, I never thought to ask) once leaping on my back as I was riding and pecking my head furiously.

This aggression has been passed to the next generation and one or two always take a lunge and hiss defensively at passers by, whatever their mode of transport.

Now in adult plumage, I’m fascinated by the one that appears to be suffering premature greyness and wonder if I should get it a bottle of Grecian 2000 or maybe just a black sharpie pen…

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2YDNEES
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking No place like home

August 2nd – One of the more surprising developments happening locally at the moment is the new care home being built on the Chester Road at Stonnall, on the site of a former concrete block factory and quarry.

The home – which is a large, impressive and has the appearance of being very well built has risen over winter and the preceding spring and seems to be nearing completion.

This doesn’t look to be your average granny farm, but rather a specialist care facility for older folk with particular challenging needs and I think it’s the kind of thing that is needed here with our raging population – and the jobs it provides will be welcome, too.

Part of the development includes road safety improvements here on the Chester Road, which is good to see.

I wish the proprietors and future residents well in this new venture.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2MZt1fA
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking From tiny acorns grow

 

August 1st – The various varieties of wasp gall that form on oak trees are necessarily seasonal. Rosy, marble and apple galls form from wasp eggs injected into leaf notes, so grown from them in spring and early summer, and by now are largely vacated and spent.

Knopper and artichoke galls form from eggs laid in acorn buds, corrupting the fruit into a gall from the crop, so don’t start appearing until late summer. Right now they’re developing well, forming a protective, curiously shaped home for the wasp larva to hatch in and develop.

Galls are fascinating things for sure, and are markers of the passing year.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2YJN88y
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Budgie bliss

August 1st – Groundsel is a common but interesting weed. It spreads and is host to a number of diseases and lungi that affect other plants, like rust fungi and black root rot, but is also supportive of small songbirds and a host of Lepidoptera.

Groundsel is thought to be mildly toxic to humans.

it’s been known for years that cage birds like canaries and budgerigars love groundsel (and chickweed) and as a child I was often sent to pluck some from the hedgerows for grandad’s budgie, which would devour any proffered without hesitation.

It’s a very hardy widespread weed, and is so common and unassuming, I think it largely exists unnoticed. However, if you actually stop to study it, it’s rather pretty.

Weeds are always worth a look – they can be surprisingly beautiful.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2MXeYXz
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Playing pontoon

July 31st – Returning home via the canal at Silver Street, I noticed that the Pier Street Bridge had pontoons and scaffold beneath – it seems to be being repainted, which I’m pleased to see.

It was painted in 2014 and a lot of the paint flaked off, but I had thought with current austerity measures there would not be the money to sort it out. I’m glad to note I was wrong.

I hope they return the support arches to their original white – they looked much more impressive in the original colour scheme.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2YDNBca
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Wetter than an otter’s pocket

July 30th – Tuesday was another washout: It rained on me on the way to work, and on the way home. It seems to do little else at the moment, bad weather is perched upon the Midlands summer like a vulture.

l experienced the heaviest rains I’ve ridden in for years; the roads were rivers and I headed home in fear and soaked through to the skin.

On the canal near Catshill Junction, the Canada geese didn’t seem to care. I loved the wee fellow seemingly sitting on his backside.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2ZwhcAK
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking It’ll all wash down when it rains

July 28th – If Saturday’s weather had been poor, on Sunday it was atrocious – the rain just didn’t stop all day. I was low, everything was on top of me and I’d had enough. I went up Walsall Wood to see friend who was out then I called; I went to pick up a takeaway. They were closed for summer holidays.

I dripped and squelched back to Brownhills. I was wet. The town was wet. Everything was wrong.

This was certainly a lost weekend. But maybe not quite as bad as Lloyd Cole’s. At least there was no hotel bill…

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2OIwAZT
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking The grass is always greener

July 25th – Lately the householder of this canalside garden with the wonderful row of planters along the water’s edge had a particular planter disappear, which he was justifiably upset about as it thought it must have been stolen.

His post on Facebook was shared many times and folk were annoyed at the pointless, nasty theft.

Seethe Watermead swan family grazing that lush green grass of the owner’s lawn, however, I’m now not convinced the missing planter wasn’t ‘helped’ into the water by a clumsy bird!

All will become clearer when the algae on the surface recedes, I guess.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2YMi8Uo
via IFTTT