February 3rd – I noted last week that I was entering the season of the commute sunset, and I wasn’t wrong. This spectacular one greeted me as I returned to Telford station this evening.
It’s so good to be setting home in the light once more. Finally it feels like spring might be not so far away.
Bring it on.
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February 4th – I’ve always been puzzled why it might be that some deciduous trees don’t shed their dead leaves in autumn; the summer growth dies and goes brown, but doesn’t drop.
Someone asked the same question on social media over the weekend, so I thought I’d look into it.
The characteristic is called marcescence, and is exhibited mainly by oak, beech and hornbeam in the UK. It’s not clear what the evolutionary purpose of this curious feature is; it could be to shelter leaf buds from browsing animals like deer, and indeed, some oaks are only marcescent on lower boughs. Another theory says that the leaves attached to the beaches have their goodness absorbed back into the tree over winter, which is more efficient than them dropping and relying on conversion from leaf litter.
So I’m not really much wiser, but at least it has a name – and this marcescant oak was showing it’s dead leaves well beside the cycleway in Telford as I passed this morning, making me smile.
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February 1st – By the time I neared home in Brownhills well after 8pm that evening, the ice on the canal was considerable.
At Silver Street from the pedestrian bridge, it looked beautiful in the orange streetlight.
It was clear, and my bike computer read -4. It was a relief to get home and warm up.
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February 1st – Friday was, again, bitter. In practice, probably not as cold as previous recent winters have been, but it seemed positively arctic after the mild season generally this time around.
The canal ices was getting quite thick – maybe an IC5 today.
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January 31st – I shoot around Walsall’s new ring road all the time, and it’s not a road system I like at all. The junctions are complex and often, badly thought out; it’s unfriendly for bikes and the signals are only just seeming integrated with each other after ten years of being fiddled with.
However, it does have it’s plus points. Sweeping over the hill and canal bridge from Place Road past the old Smiths Flour Mill and up towards the Magistrate’s court is a delight, which flows well on a bike if the traffic lights and drivers will allow.
It’s also rather beautiful.
Don’t be deceived though; despite the marking and seemingly wide cycle lane there, it’s shared use, full of obstacles and soon Peters out to nothing.
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January 31st – on the way to work on a grim, cold morning, the familiar sight of gorse flowers on waste ground near Bentley Mill Way surprised and delighted me. I’m never really sure of the difference between gorse and broom, but the bright yellow flowers – in bloom before Christmas – seem to be around forever and smell pleasingly of coconut.
Such a lovely sight on a cold, grey day.
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January 30th – I came back to Shenstone to a glass hard dusk: It was well past 5pm and the light hadn’t yet drained away leaving the sky to the west a beautiful deep blue.
It’s so good to see the lengthening day – soon sunset will be well past 5pm – and this means I’ll be entering the season of the commute sunset, which I always enjoy.
It the mean time, Shenstone again reminded me of what a wonderful place it is to come back to.
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January 30th – Heading to Hortonwood in the morning, I alighted in Telford in a snow shower that didn’t last long, but rendered the cycleway beautiful with an icing sugar dusting of fresh, undisturbed snow.
What made it even more gorgeous was at the same time, the sun was shining.
An odd experience on a beautiful, cold and crisp morning.
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January 29th – Despite an icing sugar dusting of snow and a very cold wind, the dates and emergent daffodils of the industrial estate where I work know spring is a thing.
Jack in the Green has tapped the ground with his stick and it’s all systems go.
The cold might slow things up a few days, but it’s underway now. It’s coming.
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January 29th – The cold weather for this winter has finally arrived, and the roads are icy. I’m fairly OK on the ice tyres, but it still takes time to build confidence back up when hitting black ice.
Thankfully, everywhere I’ve been, the major routes are well gritted, even though many motorists swear they haven’t been.
Road salt is not magic. It won’t work instantly, won’t de-ice the whole troad, and won’t allow you to drive like Sterling Moss in cold weather.
Tae care and take it easy, folks.
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