Tag: Cycleway

#365daysofbiking No reservations

February 25th – In Telford again, crossing the cycleway bridge over the motorway to Priorslee.

The display of blackthorn blossom on the motorway embankment here is always stunning, and always reminds me of a dusting of snow. It’s gorgeous.

One of the nice things about Telford is that the town is full of road embankments, reservations and edge lands where humans rarely go that are an absolute haven for wildlife and biodiversity of all kinds.

An interesting side effect of modern town planning.

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#365daysofbiking Keep trying

February 24th – And nature, she kept trying thought out the end of my journey.

Outside the place I was supposed to be an hour previously, this single yellow solitary soldier was the first of it’s cohort to wake from spring on the bank opposite the bike shed.

I felt proud and pleased for it, it’s comrades still in bud.

It made me much, much happier.

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#365daysofbiking Deceptively early

February 17th –  The day after one of the worst rainstorms I can remember, I was in Telford.

The trains I needed mercifully had not been terribly badly affected.

It was still windy and damp, and rather chilly – so I was surprised to spot this blossom by the cycleway through Stafford Park.

I was initially confused, then remembered some odd species of cherry blossom early, before the leaves come on.

An early but wonderfully unexpected beauty.

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#365daysofbiking – Road cones

February 10th – I went to Telford. Hard work, a tough ride, but finding my wheels again.

Sadly, they were nearly snatched from under me on the Priorslee cycleway by an unusual hazard – huge cones brought down off the nearby pine tree by the previous day’s storm.

Normally soft and compliant, these were not ripe, but hard and slippery.

Quite an unexpected hazard!

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#365daysofbiking Early one morning

January 29th – I had a short window in the morning before I took the next batch of medication when I could get out – so in the early gloom, I left for a circuit around my beloved Brownhills.

I’m not used to Engine Lane and the cycleway to the old Cement Works Bridge in the early morning. Foxes and other furry residents of the common were busy, and I disturbed their activities. Birds were awakening, and the darkened woods were full of life. I could hear horses in the paddocks snort in the dark and deer grumbling as they tend to.

Normally rides at this time of day are strictly fast commutes to work.I don’t normally stop to look at what’s around me at this time of day.

It was actually an unexpected joy to be out. I must do this again.

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#365daysofbiking You picked a fine time to leave me

January 20th – One of the few hard frosts of the season so far greeted me as I left on my bike for work.

I was very, very glad on the cycleways of Telford particularly for the studded winter tyres: Surefooted and grippy as ever. There was a lot of black ice, and I never once felt unstable.

Sadly what did cause me problems was my back brake losing all bite: For some reason my pads chose this morning to wear completely out to the point at which they were just about useless. The crossover point between ‘These are OK’ and ‘Where’s my stopping power gone?’ was one braking action on a downhill.

The one set of conditions when you really need to leave the front brake alone and only use the back… Oh dear.

Luckily, there were no spills.

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#365daysofbiking Archbishop of the hedgerow

December 20th – In Telford where I’d nipped for one last task before Christmas, the weather was mild and fairly dry, but it did feel Christmassy and my mood was lifted by the abundance of holly on the Hortonwood cycleways and hedgerows.

Holly is such a beautiful evergreen and the veritable archbishop of the hedgerow, it’s easy to see why the pagans loved it as a symbol of midwinter regeneration.

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#365daysofbiking Deluge

December 17th – By the time I left work and returned to Telford Station, it was raining again.

Not light rain, either, but the torrential kind I’d been caught in the previous Sunday.

At least I had waterproofs this time.

The colours of the rain and dusk were captivating on the cycleway down to the station from Priorslee.

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#365daysofbiking The kindness of strangers

December 2nd – Again on the far side of Hortonwood in Telford, I was returning from a meeting using the Silkin Way national Cycle Route 81 that runs along the A518 between Trench and the massive industrial park I had visited.

On a cycleway that I would have thought might have been almost forgotten, and some way from houses or nearby factories, a makeshift bird table at the side of the track, apropos of nothing.

On it, a selection of fruit and seed – all fresh with a nearby audience I’d disturbed of birds and squirrels.

Someone tends this lovingly, regularly. It’s well kept. It’s a thing of dedication, love and kindness for them.

Stranger, I have no idea who you might be, but for looking after a small corner of your world so beautifully, I wish you the very best my friend.

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#365daysofbiking Orange aid

November 27th – In Telford again, more berries, but unlike the holly ones on Monday, these laden boughs of cotoneaster will be very much appreciated by the songbird population.

Cotoneaster are really appreciated by blackbirds who will defend a discovered bush for weeks if need be. The berries are bitter, but laden with sugar and a read aid to the birds over a cold winter.

If the adage about heavy crops of fruit meaning we’re due a cold spell is true, looks like we’re in for. a bad one this year…

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