Tag: Hinst

October 1st – With autumn really bearing down on me now, no choice but to embrace it. I went out on a really very grey afternoon with a strong wind and a heavy heart. I went to visit a new cafe I’d found, and despite arriving well within stated opening hours, they were no longer serving.

Some businesses confound me.

Heading out to Canwell and Hints though, the season was setting the hedgerows and trees ablaze, the scenery was fighting to show it’s beauty through the gloom and it was hard to be down.

So I just rode on and really, really enjoyed it.

June 18th – After such a wet and miserable week it was lovely to have some sunshine and a relatively warm afternoon. Whilst the damp has been very good for the foliage and crops, it’s not been nourishing my humour at all, in fact, it’s been a very difficult period in which to stay positive.

Today’s ride, however, dispelled my gloom. Sights like this beautiful hay meadow in the Blackbrook Valley at Hints were enchanting, and the sun on my face was lifting.

You can be disillusioned with a British summer, and would be fully justified in being down – but there’s always something to remind you of why it’s such a beautiful season. The rarity value sometimes just serves to make the experience even more precious.

June 18th – I passed through Hints late afternoon and stopped off at the church, as I always do. I was sad to note the churchyard looking so scruffy – it never used to be so overgrown, but the fact that it is is probably much better of the wildlife.

Talking of which, for as long as I’ve been coming here – 35 years or more – the south gable of the church has been hime to honeybees in summer, and this year is no different. The creatures swoop and buzz amongst the gravestones, and make an appreciable sound that fills the air. 

I love to see them and the constancy of their annual return is a joy to the heart.