April 12th – And of course, the flowers continued to captivate me. Magnolia, various blossom, primroses, forget me nots, pieris (is that a flower? Don’t know) and green alkanet all entertained and gave me solace in this most unusual of rides.
You can stick the coronavirus where the sun really doesn’t shine but I can handle countryside to myself like this for as long as possible, please!
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September 12h – The harbingers of autumn come in many forms, but few more pristine and beautiful than a freshly cracked open conker husk.
I found these windfalls on my way home from Shenstone – still a little unripe but nearly there – lying in the road. Like most men, I’m indelibly programmed to pick up a stray conker wherever I see it.
And when they’re beautiful like these, that’s not hard.
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April 27th – A mystery finally solved. I first noticed this patch of what appear to be yellow dead nettles in Footherly Lane a few years ago. Every spring they return, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them anywhere else.
This eye-catching yellow display is absolutely gorgeous and fascinated me for the delicate colour and intricacy of the flowers.
After asking online, it turns out the plant is Yellow Archangel or Lamiastrum galeobdolon and indeed is of the same family as the dead nettle, and a staple of our ancient woodlands.
What on earth did we do before being able to use the collective hive mind of the internet for plant identification?
January 7th – It was a very cold afternoon as I set out, not feeling 100 percent. Black ice lurked in the country lanes around Stonnall and Shenstone, but I felt secure on the ice tyres. I pottered through a very decent golden hour and pressed up through Weeford to Whittington as a very frosty night fell. I was cold, my shoulder was aching, and in the dusk, I suffered a puncture.
It wasn’t a bad ride though, and I did enjoy it on the whole. After all, it was still fairly light at 4:30pm so the night really is on the run now.
There was that, at least.
I noticed that the Ivy House in Shenstone had had some love since I last looked a few years ago and now was looking in excellent condition after several decades of neglect. That’s a huge, rambling house. I bet it’s interesting inside.
March 26th – Another long ride, this time out to Middleton Hall, then onto the canal, up to Tamworth, then out to Alvecote, Shuttington, Seckington, Clifton and back via Hademore and Whittington. A colder, less sunny day, it was still lovely to be out.
Sometimes, the animals you see make a ride, and so it was here. The Alpacas at Canwell were a delight, as was the feeding station at Middleton. The woodpecker at Tamworth was a lovely spot, too. All around, nature was busy and animals were enjoying the air.
One thing puzzled me though. At the bridge in Footherley, someone had spread seed on the bridge wall, clearly to feed this beautiful pheasant, which doesn’t seem like a normal bird to me: it shimmered and was almost bronze on the back, and his blues were the loveliest colour.
I wonder if he’s a domestic escapee someone’s trying to recapture?
January 16th – Another bitterly cold, but generally bright day, so I headed to Hints, Weeford and Shenstone to best enjoy the it. I’d finally got the ice tyres on, so felt confident (literally) breaking the ice and riding through the slush and frozen puddles.
The landscape looked wonderful again, but it was also good to see even more fungus near Hints – on the same large, felled log, yellow jelly fungus and ascocoryne – and perfect specimens too.
This sudden cold snap has been so much what I’ve been wanting and hoping for..
July 17th – I had to pop down to Shenstone on my way home; on my return through the backlands I noticed something that had largely been passing me by of late; the crops in the fields are now ripening, and the harvest cannot be far away.
At Footherly, a field of nice, plump wheat is turning golden in the July warmth. The clean, milky-tasting grain will, if the weather continues to be reasonable, make great flour.
Nice to see.
May 16th – Second day running with a decent ride, although the weather was quite heavy going on the way back with a nasty headwind. The sun was out though, and I made a good average speed.
I headed to Coton in the Elms via Lichfield, Whitemoor Haye and Catton, and returned via Lullington, Edingale, Harlaston, Weefor and Shenstone. Everywhere was green and springlike, and the countryside as beautiful as ever.
Try as I might, I still can’t get over the sight of horses in fly masks. I know they can see though them, and that otherwise, flies drive horses mad; but they do so look like wannabe equine superheroes.
A fine ride.
April 22nd – A spin around Stonnall on an errand on the way home, and it’s getting to late spring, early summer, or at least it feels that way: warm air, surrounded by flowers and greening hedgerows and trees. I seems a world away from the scene here a few short weeks ago.
It’s also hard to imagine that on April 5th, 2013, there was still snow on these fields.
One of the most charming and frustrating things about cycling in Britain is the weather. You never know quite what’s going to happen next…
August 1st – My return journey was weary, wet, grey and warm. Again, it felt like being in the gust from a hair-drier, so warm was the breeze. It was raining steadily, and having popped in to Brum, I returned from Shenstone down quiet, greasy country lanes, dodging a whole host of slippery hazards in waiting, now hydrated.
I note most of the harvest is done here, but for a couple of fields. In the UK, I guess it pays not to dither, and as I was waiting at Shire Oak I reflected on the wonderful unreliability of the great British weather.
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