October 18th – Stripes here is cross because on the way to work, I disturbed his hunting activities, and scared off the blackbird he was painstakingly stalking in Pleck.
Bless him, he was so very cross with me. But oh, hasn’t he got a wonderful ‘tache!
A lovely cat. But I’m glad the blackbird was spared for another day, at least.
July 27th – A foul commute in steady rain and a headwind, with the greasy roads I’d experienced a couple of days ago. There was really nothing at all to commend cycling this morning.
And then I passed the ripening rowan berries, bright orange and glistening with raindrops, and the morning didn’t seem as grim anymore.
I love how nature does that.
January 9th – Another way to tell you’re having a wet, warm winter: grass is growing in the mud down the centre of Thorneyhirst Lane. In January.
The mud and slurry were unbelievable, and they’d also just flailed the hedges so this route is probably best avoided for a few weeks.
November 22nd – Time for a warning to local cyclists again.
The hedges hat (at last!) been flailed again from Anchor Bridge to Chasewater along the canal. The towpath is littered with sharp hawthorns and will puncture thinner tyres.
Probably a route best avoided for a week or two until the weather washes them away.
4th October – And finally, watch out if you’re riding along the canal between Chasewater and Brownhills. The hedge between Home Farm and the towpath has been flailed, and there are thorns all over it. As it was I passed a couple of people repairing punctures, so if you’ve not got tough tyres, I’d give the route a miss for a week or two.
August 5th – Spinning home through Shelfield I spotted this guy staring intently at something in the hedge. I’ve no idea what small, squeaky thing he spotted, but it kept him transfixed for a while.
Then he heard me, and gave me one of those evil, fixed stares that all the best cats master at an early age.
‘Who dares disturb my activities?’
I love cats.
July 14th – Called to Telford mid morning in soft rain, I was struck by how green and tunnel-like the cycleways to Hortonwood have become. The council here cut so far up the hedges, but the upper boroughs overhang and form an almost complete arch. Riding down them in even this grey daylight makes them an emerald delight, but in sunlight, they are magical green pathways, lined with foliage, fruits and flowers.
Beauty in the everyday.
January 12th – Just a warning to local cyclists that today, the hedge alongside the canal towpath at Catshill, next to Lanes Farm, was flailed. On the plus side, visibility is now great again over the hedge – this is important, necessary work that has to be done now before birds start nesting.
On the negative site, the towpath is now unavoidably strewn with that sharp enemy of cyclists across northern Europe – hawthorn spines.
I’ve often thought they should make planes out of the same stuff these thorns are made of – it can work it’s way through some very tough tyres, and causes about 80% of the flats I get.
If you’re not rocking puncture proof tyres (or even if you are) this stretch of towpath is probably best avoided for a week or two.
July 12th – At the end of the new Lichfield Southern bypass, just at the A461 end, a hazel thicket. The squirrels don’t seem to have found it yet – it’s absolutely laden with nuts.
A remarkable sight.
September 1st – Seasonal warning. Yes, it’s the hedge cutting season again, when our farming brethren flail the hawthorn hedges, in turn leaving the roads stewn with thorns made of some material that just glides into tyres. If you’re not rocking puncture proofs, avoid Gravelly Lane in Stonnall right now. It’s also quite grim up in Footherley too.
I don’t know why they don’t make weapons out of the same stuff hawthorn spines are made of. They’d never go blunt and pierce absolutely anything.
Like the Murphy’s, I’m not bitter…
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