Tag: Chasewater

January 29th – A horrible, grey, wet and misty day that had very, very little to commend it. I set out in rain, and came back in rain and there was no cessation between the two. 

My heavy heart was not helped at Chasewater, where some scumbag has dumped an old IBC full of what looks like kitchen fitter’s waste: now a repeat flytipping spot, the space next to the Nine-Foot wouldn’t be suffering if the council had put in a barrier years ago. There’s no reason for anyone except rangers to be here in a vehicle, after all.

The mess these filthy toe rags have left will cost us all to clean up. If you know who it was, please dob them in to the police.

January 21st – An experiment with long-exposure photography was fun with these thirty second exposures. The first was off the footbridge over the Chasetown bypass, and the gentle undulation of the structure clearly affected the image. Better from the crossing of the M6 Toll, which is a much harsher image since their change to LED lighting.

January 21st – It seems my optimism at the dawning of the light the previous day was seriously misplaced. Saturday was grey and cold and had nothing to give in it’s merit.

I slid out around dusk after spattering the bike: as usual when fixing up a steed, it always feels faster and way better, although what I’d done had not affected the drivetrain at all. Perhaps it’s a salved guilty conscience over lack of maintenance that makes it ride better.

Chasewater at night has lost none of it’s magic, and I guess we’re again heading into the season of good sunsets, which is another thing to be positive about, but as it was today, the lake and park were still and cold, save for the gentle grumbling of swans sheltering in the lee of the dam.

Spring will be nice this year, I’ve decided…

January 15th – One of those horrible, headache-grey wet winter days when it never really seems to get light and never stops raining. I plodded out to Chasewater, after checking the waxwings were still at Silver Court. Their numbers had increased, but the light was way too poor to get pictures.

Chasewater was empty save for a few brave souls, and the cafes had closed early. I mooched for a bit, looking for interesting wildlife, but found none, not even the large white geese which seem to have been missing now for weeks. I hope they’re OK but I guess by now they’re very old and I think they may have passed away.

I noticed with some amusement that new signs have been erected about not feeding the birds near the fort (due to pollution in the gravel there) – and something looked odd about the spacing of the ‘s’ on ‘birds’ – and then I realised someone had hastily removed an apostrophe. On all of them. Oops.

Also, is that comic sans?

The canal route I took back to Brownhills on the other hand was quite interesting. In atrocious light I saw the goosanders again, and I wonder if I’d ever be able to get a decent photo of these odd birds. The two remaining Abbey Road ducks were out and about too, as was Mrs. Muscovy, but her photos were so poor as to be unusable.

An awful day to ride, but I did see some interesting stuff which at least made braving the elements worthwhile.

December 26th – A ride up to the Chase on a windy but beautiful day. Starting late, I had to be back early too, so it was a bit of a race with a good companion who’s considering buying a bike and borrowed a steed for the occasion.

Near Cuckoo Bank, we saw a herd of deer in a roadside copse – I assume they’d moved off Chasewater which was very busy, to avoid the dogs and crowds of folk enjoying a Boxing Day walk.

In the low sun, the dear looked beautiful, and there were at least ten or more loafing in the scrub. I didn’t take these photos, my companion did, but they’re too good not to use.

A lovely ride.

December 11th – After a couple of years in limbo, I’m sad to note that after all the fuss and brouhaha, the old boating lake at Chasewater as just been filled in with earth and grassed over.

Staffordshire County Council, the park’s owners, couldn’t be doing with cleaning the water, so in a fit of typical reductive thinking, they drained the pond, left it empty for a couple of year and just filled it with earth that’s now turfed.

With no drainage in the concrete liner it will be interesting to see how this survives. One would hope they drilled the base. But maybe not. They haven’t even kerb edged the grass properly, so it will just die back and recede.

A botched solution to a botched problem that was really quite simple: it just needed good housekeeping.

November 27th – I passed through Lichfield at sunset, and later, into Brownhills West from Chasewater where I checked out a new twist on an old muse.

Lichfield was beautiful but busy, so I grabbed a few shots at Stowe and Minster Pools before heading home through Hammerwich and Chasewater. At Chasewater, I was interested to see how the recent change from sodium lamps to white LED on the M6 Toll had affected the curoious portal effect on the footbridge which has so fascinated me before. 

It’s still a very otherworldly effect. This pleases me.

November 20th – I know very little about great crested grebes, but there seemed to be rather a lot of them on Chasewater as I passed through. Difficult to photograph for their habit of diving just as you get them in shot, they are gradually transitioning into winter plumage and losing their distinctive brown flashes on their heads. They dive and pursue fish underwater, and I wonder if their recent apparent profusion at Chasewater indicates improving fish populations there following the dry years when the lake was drained.

Lovely birds, fascinating to watch.

November 20th – A dreadfully great and damp afternoon saw me head out with a heavy heart – but hitting the fresh air, I took a spin over Brownhills Common for the first time in ages. it’s looking good, despite the autumnal decay; the heathland restoration here has clearly been beneficial, and it’s lovely to see so many self-seeded deciduous trees like oaks and sycamores growing well.

On to Chasewater, a circuit around the lake was wet but rewarding; the huge number of birds on the lake were mesmerising and the gull roost was massive. Fly Creek is flowing well with the recent rains and the area of the boardwalk crossing is as enchanting as ever.

As dusk fell, heading back to Brownhills, the blue light caught the canal at Catshill, and for a moment at least, was magical.

Sometimes, you set out for a ride in miserable weather and it turns out to be better than you’d ever imagine.

November 6th – I saw the deer on the scrub between Chasewater Dam and the bypass – just the two, what I assume to be mother and child. They were contentedly loafing, and although interested by the human attention, they didn’t seem nervous, at least until a dog appeared.

I’d not seen he dear at close quarters for a while, and on a wet, grey and very cold-seeming afternoon, seeing these graceful creatures cheered me up.