Tag: Chasewater

#365daysofbiking A fun guy

Christmas Day – A Christmas Day ride was a tradition long before I started 365daysofbiking – there’s nothing better to prepare for a big meal than a good blast on the bike.

Today, my options were confined as my time was limited, so I opted for a fast run up the canal to Chasewater. On the way, I noticed this fungus – tramates of some sort I think – on a felled tree by the M6 Toll.

Unusual to find it in midwinter looking so good. Possibly a sign of the unusually warm season so far.

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#365daysofbiking Pork squared

 

December 15th – I popped up to the Christmas Market at Chasewater Railway, hoping to catch a little of the festive spirit, and despite the weather putting a dampener on things, it was actually a great event. Plenty of stalls with interesting stuff and some decent entertainment coupled with a decent butty in the cafe.

The rain, however, was relentless.

You can tell it’s a Black Country event when they sell exotic flavours of pork scratchings, though – although the apparent tautological pointlessness of bacon flavour had me a bit nonplussed…

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#365daysofbiking Fade to grey:

December 9th – A throughly grey unpleasant afternoon leeched into dusk as I took a spin around Chasewater, taking a break from my workload. I saw no deer, and even the birdlife seemed suppressed, perhaps due to the unpleasant wind.

It’s was utterly colourless, wet and my heart was heavy. Days like this get me down.

#365daysofbiking Mist opportunity:

November 17th – A spin up to Chasewater after some mechanical jobs on the bike didn’t quite reward me the way I’d hoped: There was a mist settling and I was hoping for either an inversion or a gorgeous sunset – but neither occurred, just a hazy, soft dying of the light. 

Even a ride up the former pit mound to take in the view was uninspiring, sadly.

I made my return through CHasetown, and as always, the high street is brilliant at night. Even when there are few people around, it looks busy. I’ll never work that out.

Nice to see also that at Chasewater, the water levels are slowly recovering.

#365daysofbiking Falling, down::

October 20th – I was very down today. At the moment I’m working hard, long hours and it caught up with me when everything I attempted failed, or had proven to need more stuff than I had to do it with: From DIY to bike repairs, the day was an utter failure.

I slipped out at dusk, and in a half-light Brownhills, unusually my mood did not improve at all.

The gorgeous avenue of trees on The Parade few locals seem to realise is there is as photogenic as it is every autumn, and the M6 Toll and Chasewater are always good for the photographic, darkness soul.

But today, rarely, cycling didn’t help.

365daysofbiking Ladies, please:

October 7th – I was also hacked off I was without a functioning camera when I witnessed this – something I’ve never seen before. Female deer, arguing.

At Chasewater, my light scared a group of red deer off the dam path down on to the dam itself. They were all females of varying ages, and there was some jockeying for position as they hurried away. 

In these three photos you can see the two deer of the left square off, one refuse to defer to the other, then they both buck and kick each other.

It was over in an instant, but the sound of their feet clattering against each other is something I’ll not forget.

Neither is the spectacle of two female red deer, bickering.

365daysofbiking Noble jacket:

October 7th – I set out on a pleasant but cold afternoon full of optimism. I was off to Cannock Chase to find deer, fungi some fine downhills and some autumn colour. 

Fate had other ideas.

The first problem was I’d left home with a flat battery in my camera, so all these are phone photos, and without exception, I think they’d have been better pictures if taken with my camera. But I would tend to think that, I suppose.

Two mechanical failures and I was sunk. A makeshift repair on a shredded tyre wasn’t dependable, so a quick visit to Castle Ring was to be my lot. 

I found good toadstools on the sandy embankment by the canal between Wharf Lane and Newtown bridges, which was nice, and the golden hour at Castle Ring was beautiful. Sad to note though now the once stunning view is again obscured by the tall trees down the hill – you can barely see the power station at Rugeley at all now.

A great sunset as I passed back through Chasewater just rubbed salt in my flat battery wound.

Some days are just not well starred. This was one of them, sadly.

#365daysofbiking Hi deer:

September 30th – after a barren period of hardly seeing any, it was ace to meet the deer at Chasewater, just by the picnic area.

They expressed mild interest in me, but were not overly bothered by my presence.

It doesn’t matter how much I see of these guys – they’ll always be magical to me.

#365daysofbiking For those about to rock:

September 30th – The water level at Chasewater has been dropping since late summer, due to the valves being left open allowing the reservoir to drain into the canal. The drop in water level I was told was necessary to facilitate one of the periodic dam inspections that are required here, but also to undertake some maintenance on the causeway the bisects the lake from Jeffrey’s Swag, by carrying the railway and main footway to the North Heath.

Where the embankment has been collapsing, large rocks are being laid to make up for the loss, and presumably to form a barrier for further damage.

It looks like a proper job, too – not like the piles of concrete posts that were used for this purpose in the early 70s.

#365daysofbiking Home on the range:

September 9th – I rode up to Cannock Chase late in the afternoon, going via Chasewater and Cuckoo Bank then over Rainbow Hill and up Kitbag Hill; from there down Abraham’s Valley to the A51 and back through Rugeley, Armitage and Longdon.

Autumn is always a return here and the fungi is starting to come through, but there is still colour in the hated Himalayan balsam and evening primrose. The forest was thankfully deserted and a climb onto the old butts on Wolseley Plain was worth the effort.

Autumn is really tapping me on the shoulder now and seeing sunset at 7:30 was a bit of a shock.

Ah well, a nice ride but could have done with a bit more sun…