Tag: Cycleway

August 13th – Honeysuckle berries are unpleasant, and in most varieties of the plant, slightly toxic to humans. The berries of the most common hedgerow species I see are crimson and sticky, and beloved of birds and bugs. If you can catch them before they’re devoured, they’re beautiful, like jewels, almost. These are growing near the cycleway in Pelsall, where it crosses Mill Road. Note the airborne grime stuck to the surface of the fruit – this is why foraged stuff should always, always be washed.

But don’t forage these, they’ll make you ill…

August 13th – Returning from Darlaston, I took to the canal. From pretty much Great Bridge to Gostote, the footpath alongside the Walsall and Wyrley and Esiington Canals is a good as any in Walsall. Well surfaced with a self-healing, stone-blown aggregate, the path is fast, smooth and fine on any tires. If only the towpaths through Pelsall or Aldridge were this good.

Which makes the plan to upgrade the ones here all the more bizarre. Can the council not do the worst ones, rather than fudge about with the best we’ve got? Has anyone who made this daft decision ever ridden a bike anywhere, let alone here?

July 29th – The summer is now moving into a new, later phase. From the growth, then the flowering, we’re now in the ripening and fruiting stage. All around, conkers, acorns and berries are visible in trees and hedgerows, still swelling and ripening. Here at Telford, the rowans that line the cycleways are turning orange slowly. Beautiful, but sad too, at the passage of summertime.

July 14th – Returning from the Our Big Gig event in Walsall Arboretum late afternoon, I’d had enough of the traffic and heat and headed for the Goscote Valley cycleway, for a traffic-free, shady alternative. There seemed to be a fair few cats about, who in the way cats do, studiously ignored me, or hid. Loved the little black kitten near Pelsall, although Mr. Whitepaws, at Harden, seemed every bit the cat-about-town.

June 4th – A hectic one. I had a morning meeting in Redditch, and an afternoon one in Telford, so I spent most of this gorgeous, sunny day either cycling, or on the train. Redditch’s the Arrow Valley cycleway is still gorgeous. I love the way the tiny hamlet of Ipsley is preserved in the middle of a park, surrounded by urban sprawl. The wild garlic glade has improved since my last visit, too. 

A joy to the heart.

August 8th – I note that the wonderful Linda Mason has today witnessed the itchy feet of the swallows and consequently mentioned the ‘A’ word – Autumn.

Not yet, you don’t, matey!

I prefer to think of this period as high summer and then late summer. Autumn to me doesn’t come until the leaves turn, around late September, but I mourn summer so much I’m probably just deluding myself. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the onset of the fruiting time – here beside the M54 at Telford, on one of the town’s numerous, largely unmapped and therefore lightly used cycleways, there is a fantastic crop of rowan berries. Sometimes called mountain ash, they make a very palatable jam or wine.

Today, they made a passing cyclist smile.

May 17th – I had a huge amount to think about on the way home from work tonight. It was a warm, pleasant afternoon, so I took NCN5 from Walsall and headed through Pelsall and up the old railway to Chasewater for a bit of quiet contemplation. I hadn’t been up this track for a few weeks – in fact, since I saw the deer here last month. It was now wearing it’s late-spring jacket of fluorescent green. In the greening times, this path transforms into an emerald tunnel, almost totally cut off from its surroundings, permanently damp and scented with growth, flowering and earth.