Tag: canal

July 4th – Sweet rain.

It’s been a long, dry and warm spell. Today was fraught, stressed, tired, sweaty. I was struggling against the urge to just go home, the heat, tiredness, irritation. But I could smell the rain on the wind. Sweet, distant, but present. I stood on the threshold of an open fire escape at work and filled my lungs with the smell of moisture on the wind.

As I left work, it began. I enjoyed it. Not torrential, but steady. Gently saturating the plants, refreshing the greenery, and making me feel if not less tired, more alert.

A sensory delight. 

I was glad the week was over. And welcomed the rain.

July 3rd – Cleavers, or sweethearts as they’re colloquially known hereabouts are fascinating little things. A creeping, grippy weed, it elevates itself from the ground by hooking on to other plants with it’s spiny, sticky hairs. The seeds themselves employ the same mechanism of almost velcro-like attachment, adhering well to clothing, feathers and animal fir. 

The owners of dogs and cats with longer coats will know well the hours spent picking these devilish little balls out of their animal’s hair… but as a seed dispersal tactic, it’s brilliant, as animals preen the seeds out, and they germinate where they land.

Natural engineering is damned clever.

I’ve no idea what the bug is, but he’s an interesting wee thing.

June 30th – With the passage of the early summer, we move from the flowering to the fruiting. Most fruits and seeds will be weeks in development, and not become of anything until late summer and autumn, but many flowers and trees seed early. The lupins by the canal at Clayhanger have long passed their best, but the seed pods they’ve formed, resplendent with downy fur, are a treat in themselves.

The dandelions, of course, such masters of natural engineering, seed all summer through. Such common flowers, rarely studied, but so gorgeous in their perfection.

June 30th – I guess we’re halfway through the year now, and in high summer. It certainly seemed like it as I cycled home along the canal this evening – the greenery, the light, the still, clear water. The peace.

It also occurred to me that after 6 moths of opening out, we’re now closing in again, but summer will hopefully be around for another 10 weeks or so yet.

It doesn’t seem ten minutes ago since I was wrapping up warm and wondering if I needed to change to winter tyres.

Where has this year gone?

June 29th – Also showing well was the landscape. From the view down to Sandhills and Springhill over Home Farm, to the threatening skies over Hammerwich, the countryside looked gorgeous. Everywhere I surveyed was turning colour with ripening crops.

This people, is Brownhills. It has some remarkably beautiful views.

June 29th – I wasn’t feeling so hot, and after the canalside festival, headed for a spin up to Chasewater, just to get some air. I must say, the hay fever is playing havoc with me this year.

The canal is teaming with life at the moment, from the growing families of waterfowl – the swan family still stand at 7 and they’re getting huge now – to dragon and damselflies, water lilies and some rather large fish. It’s a fascinating place at the moment, and well worth a walk if you fancy it.

It didn’t help my hay fever in the slightest, but it did take my mind off the sneezing…

June 26th – Without my trusty camera, the phone was employed again on the way home – but I hate it, and inadvertently set it to take square images, which are no use to man nor beast.

I took some photos of a lovely black and white puss that walked out of the hedge in Green Lane, and mewed a greeting at me, but the images were terrible. Just as well that I noticed this impressive pile drilling machine on the building site near Catshill Juntion. It will be drilling foundation piles for the new maisonettes here.

That’s a large drill bit and an impressively complex piece of equipment. Bet it would be fun to play with…

June 21st – An abortive ride terminated early due to a silly mechanical problem I hadn’t got the tool on me to fix, but I still got 20 miles in. Over at Anglesey Basin, the swan family were contentedly preening together on the canal bank between the towpath and the water, and weren’t troubled by my presence at all.

Still seven cygnets, all growing well. Lovely to see.

June 17th – It had been a tough day, but recent issues should improve now, and I slipped out again, this time at sunset. I just took a lazy loop of the canal out of Brownhills, over Catshill Junction and up to Chasewater. 

At Newtown, the dying sun caught the water and rush-irises, and rendered everything precious. A pleasingly serene end to a difficult, scary day.