Tag: dam

March 10th – For the first time in what I think must be two years, Chasewater is overflowing into the spillway again. That means it’s as full as it can now possibly get. From an environmental point of view, this is interesting, as during the wet winter the lake has filled from it’s tributaries, and held back their flow from the rivers Trent and Tame where they would otherwise end up – now the overspill will got into the Crane Brook, and flow several miles downstream to the Tame at Tamworth.

At the moment, the flow is fairly slight, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next few days.

It’s something to note that the water is overtopping the weir fairly evenly, which is quite a testament to the engineers who constructed it: the horizontal looks just about spot on!

November 10th – Passing the narrows on the canal between the M6 flyover and the Bentley Mill Way aqueduct on the Walsall-Darlaston border, I note someone is preparing to drain a stretch of canal – presumably for the works near the aforementioned aqueduct.

Theses just-delivered, fresh cut planks – stout, and carefully profiled – will be dropped into the slots in the narrows, sealed with plastic sheeting and a similar dam built on the other side of the worksite. The dammed section is then drained.

It’ll be interesting to see what work is done.

June 13th – A wet, miserable day, with the weather only clearing in the early evening. I headed out on surprisingly puddle-free towpaths into a glistening, dripping wet green. 

I went out with the intention of comparing the Nikon to the Sony on the same/similar shots. The Sony may have a great interface, but the image quality in poor light can’t hold a candle to the Nikon. Interesting.

The flag irises are doing well this year – huge beds with lots of flowers all along the canal through Brownhills and up to Chasewater. After a brief break the gorse is flowering again, and the ox-eye daisies on Chasewater Dam were a delight.

After most of the day stuck indoors, a real tonic.

February 15th – This was a surprise, I must say; in the past couple of years, Chasewater has been allowed to fill overwinter to the point which it overflows, but apparently not this year. The water level has steadily risen to about 300mm (a foot) or so off full, and today, water was draining quickly into the canal from the reservoir.

I guess the Canal and River Trust must need the water for some reason – that is, after all, why Chasewater exists – but it does seem unusual. Hope they don’t draw too much down this time.

February 15th – A grey, lightless day, but still atmospheric. I popped out at lunchtime, not wanting to go too far as I was still resting and in recovery mode.

I slid up to Chasewater on the canal, and my favourite tree at Home Farm looked skeletal against the mist. The canal itself was deathly still, and I saw few people around. A tough day to take photos, and not a great riding day, either; but I did enjoy the spin.

Hopefully the weather will brighten and we’ll get a touch of spring soon…

January 2nd – Today, I was at a loose end. Things hadn’t come together well, and I felt miserable and disconnected, but I got my rug together and headed into Lichfield at dusk. It rewarded me beautifully – I love the Christmas lights here; even more poignant at the close of the festive season. It’s amazing how poncing about with a camera and creating a little can cheer you up.

For those counting, it’s the third anniversary of riding 365 days a year. I actually started the project in April, 2011 in order to ride every day of the 30 days of that April, mainly to stop fellow twitter cyclist Renee Van Baar from nagging me about it. At the end of that month, i was enjoying the thing so much I carried on, and vowed to make it 365 days.

Sadly, over the new year of 2011/12, I suffered bad food poisoning, and was off the bike for two days. I was gutted, and so feeling cheated, I started again. Today was the third anniversary of that resolution.

I often agonise over to whether I continue this, and I welcome reader opinion, so please do comment; but this journal is so much part of what I do on a bike every day now that it would be hard to stop. The readership continues to grow; over 5,100 followers.

Statistics for this year gone have been a total distance of 9,296 miles. That’s still about 25½ miles a day. A remarkable total of 14,446 photos have been taken. On the journal so far, there have been 3,028 posts. I have cycled continuously, every day, for 1095 days. 

In total, the journal has run for 1,368 days from the start, and something in just shy of 35,000 miles. Think about that; I’ve cycled every day, rain, snow, wind or shine of the last 1,368 days, all except 2. I’m proud of that.

I guess I proved a middle aged, ordinary geezer with a fondness for cake and tea can do this.

Thank you for riding it with me. As long as people are enjoying this, I’ll keep doing it.

Your comments are, as ever, welcome, even if it’s just to tell me to shut the hell up…

March 7th – A great afternoon, although the wind was still very fresh. I returned via Chasewater, which was surprisingly deserted. I noticed the wakeboarding equipment had been set up for the new season, and the lake was still overflowing into the spillway. Waves broke against the southern shore with some anger and splashed any incautious walker.

The canal also looked fine as I returned to Brownhills with the sun warm on my back. This early spring is gorgeous, and it’s just what the doctor ordered – but I still can’t get the frightening thought out of my head that at the end of March last year we had the heaviest snowfalls for years.

One thing about Britain I really love: no two seasons are ever the same.

October 20th – Also up on Chasewater Dam, I spotted the crack in the render of the back wall of the dam cottage. It’s obviously been there a while, and someone is monitoring it – that white plate, glued across the fracture with resin, was put there to gauge if the crack was growing. The plate has indeed fractured, and a portion is now missing.

I guess it’s a remnant of the dam works here. I never noticed it before.

October 20th – There’s some really great fungi growing at the moment on Chasewater Dam, where the trees were removed. I have no idea what they are, and initially, they looked like piles of horse manure. It was only when I got closer I realised what they were. it has just stopped raining, and they glistened wonderfully.

Still can’t find any decent fly agaric this year.