April 3rd – Too rushed to take many photos today, but pulled up short by a flash of cerise in the Clayhanger hedgerow – blackcurrant blossom. Always beautiful, mostly overlooked.
On a grim, cold and windy day a real fillip.
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April 2nd – Since it’s spring, I note that the aggressively begging Canada geese are back on the canal near Clayhanger Bridge. Although they’d both clearly been grazing the freshly mown grass on the towpath, they were both hungry and refused to let me pass until I gave them a treat.
Curiously, this seems to be their permanent state, no matter how much food they have…
Fortunately, I’ve been anticipating their reappearance and had some seed in my pocket ready for these shameless muggers.
I’m glad to see some traditions holding steady.
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April 1st – It’s the 8th birthday of this blog today – on April 1st, 2011 I started by joining the #30daysofbiking project egged on by Renee Van Bar, top cyclist, pal and Dutchperson. I enjoyed it so much, the only thing that ever stopped me riding was a very bad case of food poisoning at New Year 2012. Apart from those lost 2 days, I’ve cycled every day since then.
That’s cycling for 2,920 days out of the last 2,922.
I’m quite pleased with that. When I tell the #30daysofbiking people about this they always treat me like some kind of oddity.
Every day I get on my bike and ride somewhere, and take you readers along with me. Thanks for joining me and sharing my journeys, be they work, errands or pleasure.
And what better time to mark this achievement than to note the fresh white beam leaves of a new year? Gorgeous in their ridged perfection, they are beautiful and I was pleased to see them near Clayhanger Common.
Cone on then, grab your coat – I’m up for another year of this. Are you? Hop on.
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March 25th – Nearer Brownhills, I hit the canal at the Black Cock for the final ride to Brownhills. It was very clear but no moon. Stopping to take photos of Clayhanger Bridge – one of my favourite night-time photographic muses – I realised that the stars were showing well. I hoped I caught them. I also tried at Catshill Junction.
You’ll need to zoom but I’m pleased to see I caught Orion in both cases. Not a bad result.
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March 4th – You need to turn the sound up for this one.
I was returning from work early for me, before it was dark. Passing the new pond in Clayhanger, a couple of swans landed out of sight on the water, then took flight again. The geese, mallards and other waterfowl were clearly not happy about something.
There even seems to be what I think might be an owl shouting to them to keep the noise down!
I love the sounds of birds like this. The only loud birds we heard here as a kid were crows.
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March 3rd – Sunday was a different kettle of fish. Saturday had been occasionally rainy, but had sunny periods and was warm, if a little grey and gusty. Sunday had a wind forged on Satan’s back doorstep and a driving rain that pierced clothes.
A quick run out around Clayhanger Common late afternoon to catch the dying of the day was in order. It was, to put it mildly, hell. I was glad to get home as a short, sharp but destructive storm arrived.
Some days were not made for riding a bike…
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March 1st – A dreadful day with high winds and rain.
Coming home at dusk, I just caught the remainder of a sunset over the canal at Walsall Wood.
Sometimes, even the horrible days have a decent sunset.
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February 28th – Remarkably, still just February and the hawthorn hedges and scrub have new leaves, looking lovely in the rain. Last year this was a whole month later.
Hawthorn leaves when fresh like this are really tasty to chew.
I’m so pleased for an early end to the winter like this – even if this pleasant spell ends soon, it’s been refreshing, like recharging the batteries.
The light and warm days cannot be far away now.
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February 6th -The lighter evenings, although coming on fast now, have not reached the far end of my commute, and I tend to do the canal less in the dark, as riding the towpaths at night – even with my excellent front light – is a constant mental grind.
Approaching Clayhanger Bridge on my way back to Brownhills, I stopped to check a text, and realised how bright my light was, to catch Clayhanger Bridge like that.
It’s still a constant effort not to end up taking an early bath, though…
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January 23rd – The journey home was not so enjoyable. The snow had thawed, but it had gone cold again, and there was a lot of ice. I made an awful decision to try the canal between the Black Cock Bridge and Brownhills, and the towpath was barely ridable: The thawing snow had frozen hard and the problem was not the ice, but the ruts in it which were numerous when they took your wheel.
Almost worth it though for my regular muse Clayhanger Bridge at night, with a very different appearance for a change.
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BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 