Tag: Clayhanger

#365daysofbiking – Chalk mark before a rainstorm

April 26th – With the sudden burst of lockdown shaming, finger wagging and the boom of the morally prurient social media shamers, it’s really easy to miss small little things at this time that are actually encouraging acts of community between, mainly it has to be said, children.

Painted rainbows and teddies in windows, garden displays and other curiosities created during long, isolated lockdown days are treats and ways of communicating the shared confinement without breaking the rules, and they put a huge smile on the faces of kids out for their daily exercise, parents and me, too.

There’s been a really fun trend to revive chalked games on pavements and paths for other kids to find and participate in. More than just the old fashioned hopscotch (although most incorporate it, almost as a tribute), these courses are linear with a start and end, incorporating line following, instructions to hop or jump or do some movement, reciting games, spins, pebble target throws and races.

They are a shared happiness, but shared from a distance – the separation being time. They are an utterly joyous thing and this one, on the Spot Path over Clayhanger Common, was a brilliant one.

Sadly I think it’ll probably be erased by the oncoming rains, but I hope that won’t deter the creation of a replacement.

Well done to the creators of these, and my best wishes. Life will be normal soon and we’ll all look back on these days, and smile when we think of how we all loved the chalked games…

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#365daysofbiking In the pink

April 23rd – It’s appropriate for St. George’s day I guess that apple blossom is now out. For all th frilliness and glamour of the ornamental cherries, you really can’t beat traditional apple blossom. Pink and white, it’s a gorgeous spectacle, and very British.

It smells rather nice too.

It’s in hedgerows all over, but this lovely specimen is on the canal between Clayhanger Bridge and the Black Cock.

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#365daysofbiking Fine and dandie

April 15th – I’ve noticed over the last few days that one of the least noted wildflowers is so far having a very good year. Yellow, rather beautiful, and dreadfully overlooked, the dandelion is a staple of verges, lawns, hedgerows, edgelands and anywhere there’s a scrinite of nutrition to be extracted from soil.

A lovely tenacious plant, I love to see these fine flowers; yet I feel I’m probably one of the very few to ever appreciate them.

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#365daysofbiking Peared down

April 14th – On the way to work on a sunny morning, I passed the new pond at Clayhanger on the canal. I noticed that the pear tree there is currently in blossom.

Pear blossom is subtly different to apple, which comes a bit later and has pink tinges, and to cherry, which is generally smaller, denser and more uniform.

The white flowers against the blue sky again made for a brilliant contrast, and improved my mood no end.

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#365daysofbiking In my solitude I am least alone

April 13th – Dusk, on the canal. The bite of a chilly spring evening. The sound of wind, waterfowl grumbling and no traffic at all.

I realised that for the first time in weeks, nobody else was on the canal towpath. I was alone.

Since the lockdown, people have taken to canals for exercise and walking in a way I’ve never seen before – which is good: I really want people who don’t know the beauty of local canals to come and share it.

But it’s still nice to find myself here, alone, but accompanied by my thoughts and feelings. It it at moments like this I feel least alone.

I stood enjoying it for quite a while.

Realising I was shivering, I got on my bike and rode back home.

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#365daysofbiking By my own hand

April 13th – Easter Monday was colder. Quite bitter, in fact, so I did essential maintenance on the bikes and pottered at home, before shooting out for a late spin up the canal to test the bike out.

At Clayhanger Common the cowslips are fully in bloom now and the sight of them fill me with pride – as I scattered the seeds that formed these colonies a fair few years ago now. I collected the seed heads from a patch in Stonnall and spread the seed at various spots on Clayhanger Common, not expecting them to take hold.

But they did.

I then used seeds from those patches to expand and create new ones elsewhere on the common.

And now, they’re all over it.

Something I will always be proud of.

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#365daysofbiking Obtrusive

April 6th – Working from home when I can means shorter exercise rides, so I try to make them quite challenging in the short time I’m out, mindful of the busybodies who currently seem to be revelling in their mantel as self-appointed lockdown police.

I hammered a fast, offroad circuit of Brownhills, and up around the track that runs around the new pond at Clayhanger. The heavily rutted, drying out trails are quite fun and I enjoyed the sight of swans pairing off on the water below.

Lots of people who formerly wouldn’t walk are doing so now; taking advantage of their daily exercise allowance. This is making me feel quite obtrusive: Quiet routes and trails that were usually mine alone I now share with those new to them.

I’m surprised nobody has got lost on the common yet…

Adapting to all this will take a while.

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#365daysofbiking First, some good news at last

March 26th – However, it’s a glorious spring, the rain seems to have stopped and nature at least seems to be behaving normally.

On Clayhanger Common, small yellow flowers have appeared- my favourites; the cowslip.

These tiny primroses bring me such joy. Seeing the first of these is such good news.

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#365daysofbiking Sodden, still

March 13th – Between Walsall Wood and Clayhanger in the failing light, the towpath was sodden and the going tough, but the wet environment did catch the light rather well.

I keep grumbling about the rain, and this winter has been truly, remarkably wet. I’m at the stage now where it just doesn’t bother me anymore. If it’s raining, I don’t grumble – I have no choice. I just haul on the waterproofs and get on with it.

But I do kind of think fate now owes me a very dry, warm and sunny summer to make up for it…

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#365daysofbiking Pondlife

March 2nd – Over between Clayhanger Village and the canal, behind the big house the new pond – created by the removal of Walsall Wood Colliery’s spoil heap in the 1980s – is enjoying its annual but brief period of visibility.

In spring, before the leaves come, once can see the pond, and it looks healthy and full of life.

As the leaves grow, it will become impossible to see – but it will frequently be heard when the roosting waterfowl that love it so will squabble and bicker.

The fact that nature is thriving on this once very polluted, barren place fills me with joy.

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