hamstead – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

May 19th – A gentle afternoon amble into Birmingham along the canal was a lovely trip – but I did get drowned on the way home. I went from work, along the Tame Valley canal and down the Walsall Canal to Aston. It’s nice to see the route to Birmingham now smoothly surfaced all the way from Rushall Junction at Ray Hall, a real improvement that will see me coming this way more in future.

On my way I saw cats, geese, and my nose noted that the flag irises were out, which although gorgeous – in this case growing around an unexpectedly beautiful pond in the shadow of a huge recycling plant in Saltley – always set off my hay fever.

A lovely canal ride on a grey, showery day that still showed the best of urban Birmingham.

December 28th – It was one of those so cold, but so beautiful sunlight winter days when there was thin ice on the canal and the usual winter towpath quagmire had frozen solid, so I headed to Birmingham on the canal. From Aldridge, via Rushall Junction, Tower Hill, Aston and Brindley Place. After a call at the German Market I went up to Soho, over Sandwell Valley Park and home on NCN 5 via Yewtree and Walsall.

The kingfisher was the best that could be done – the birds are very active at the moment, but they don’t stay still for long! In the sunset photo, that’s St Augustine’s at Edgbaston, as viewed from the canal mainline at Rotton Park. the sky really was that colour.

A beautiful day, and a lovely ride.

March 19th – I rode the canal down through south Walsall, through Tower Hill and down into Birmingham. The canal alternates here between deep, deep cuttings and tall, elevated sections. There are 3 really impressive bridges, and I took time to go up on each one. I was fascinated by the ramshackle brickwork amongst the weather-fissured sandstone, put there to stope the face collapsing. An odd solution.

The going was very heavy – the towpaths are still very muddy and slimy and they need a couple of weeks of decent weather to dry out a bit. The Birmingham Cycle Revolution doesn’t seem to be coming to this line, which is a shame, as it’s a lovely route.

August 7th _ I spotted this strutting juvenile heron on the Tame Valley Canal at Hamstead, Birmingham, on a sunny afternoon. Displaying a good bit more bombast than most herons, he wasn’t scared of me and performed wonderfully on the opposite bank, stalking, preening and strolling.

I love herons. They always look like eccentric old men; dishevelled, preoccupied and slightly mad.

April 15th – Tower Hill on the way back to Walsall, and this bridge, it’s height and elegance always take my breath away. This is another place where, but for the distant hum of traffic, you’d never know you were in the inner city.