#365daysofbiking I trip through your wires:
September 29th – At Crestacre, on the top of Springhill overlooking Sandhills and Brownhills, the sky was a gorgeous combination of red, orange and blue, and set off the skyline of Brownhills beautifully, even if that did pretty much just consist of Humphries House.
I was intrigued by the medium voltage electric lines in the foreground, and the set of jumper insulators on the pole’s left. I’ve never noticed them before, and wonder why they’re there?
#365daysofbiking Tree of life:
September 29th – Heading out at sunset after what was a pretty bad day, I swung up the canal through town, over Catshill Junction and over to Barracks Lane. The canal was beautiful and peaceful, and the only souls I saw were the waterfowl scudding around looking for food.
Looking over the fields to Home Farm my favourite tree – the horse chestnut on the skyline just by the farm buildings – is beautifully golden, and glowed in the evening.
All round me now, the greenery is packing up and going for autumn. There’s no ignoring it.
#365daysofbiking Going down:
September 26th – Crossing Cathshill Junction and heading up to Anchor Bridge, I caught it on the cusp of day and night, and realised that soon, I would be doing this once more in darkness.
I don’t know where summer went this year; it seems barely days since I was riding the roaches, eating ice-cream at Blithfield or riding in short sleeves around North Warwickshire.
Time passes so fast these days. It was a good summer – I doubt I’ll ever see one with such consistently fine weather again.
#365daysofbiking Better than expected:
September 23rd: On the canal on the way to Chasewater, I stopped to admire the view. It was a lovely autumn day and the colours of the dying back vegetation in the golden hour were gorgeous.
This is a lovely stretch of canal, particularly at this time of year for obvious reasons, and it gives great views of the Anchor Pub and Bridge.
Considering the weather forecast today was awful, it didn’t turn out too bad in the end.
#365daysofbiking Duck tales:
September 21st – The humble mallard duck doesn’t get much love, but I’ve always held that, like magpies, if you study them in any more than the most cursory fashion, they’re absolutely beautiful. The iridescent, shimmering greens of the males are lovely enough, but also the females are very much more than drab brown; if you study them, they have the most gorgeous blue and white flashes on their wings.
But better than appearance is their personality and social behaviour – here on the overflow in Brownhills near Silver Street, the ducks were in parliament doing what ducks do – sat in running water, dozing, chattering and generally being the best ducks they can ever be.
Such contented creatures.
#365daysofbiking Portal:
September 18th – Still surviving and developing is the fascinating green tunnel over the desire-path behind the canal overflow at Clayhanger. Now completely overgrown and just the right size for an adult to squeeze through, it’s a fascinating product of what I suspect is a regular dog walking route.
I hope this continues to be used – it’s such a lovely, happenstance thing
#365daysofbiking Still hanging on:
September 15th – Back on the canal in Brownhills on the way back home, the autumn was far more subtle. The hawthorn hedgerows are very, very crimson this year with hawthorn berries showing a particularly heavy harvest, and the reed beds, grass and waterside trees are still pretty green.
If I tried hard, I could just forget the oncoming season and still convince myself these were the end days of a great summer.
#365daysofbiking Night comes in:
September 14th – The golden hour continued into dusk, and pottering down the canal by the Clayhanger overflow the sunset was stark, harsh and beautiful.
I love this view, it’s one of my favourite local views and I’ll never tire of it.At the end of a long, tiring week it was a great pick-me-up.
#365daysofbiking Up the junction:
September 10th – A quick hop up on to Catshill Junction Bridge which is always a good spot to note the passage of the seasons.
Forgetting the weather (which is decidedly grim right now) there’s a definite tinge of autumn in those trees, towpaths, banks and bushes. It’s still quite, quite green – but there is the kiss of gold at the extremities, and the green looks dark and weary.
And the season’s wheel grinds on.
#365daysofbiking Springing up like… Mushrooms?
September 7th – Up on the old rail line, I noticed that with the damp weather, fungi was now coming through after a very thin summer.
I’m glad to see this as the mycology fascinates me; most folk don’t realise that generally toadstools and mushrooms are merely the blooms of larger underground organisms, and the colours, textures and shapes fascinate me.
I looks like this spot will be a good place to find fungi this autumn.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 