Tag: IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Ripening

July 4th – One of the signs of a passing summer is the emergence of various fruits and berries, and their gentle ripening. This morning at Clayhnager, I spotted these rowan berries – beloved of wine and jam makers as well as songbirds – turning from green to a light orange.

Soon they will be a wonderful deep colour, and fall on pavements where they crackle and pop satisfyingly when walked or ridden upon.

The summer really is passing fast now.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2GeAy5P
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Growing fast

July 3rd – Ah, hello you guys.

The Watermead swan family – minus dad, as is so often the case these days – were grazing the algae with mum at Catshill Junction as I came home.

I can’t get over how fast these cygnets are growing!

Must be all the greens.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2XoeHUj
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking A taste of honey

July 3rd – As expected, someone has flailed the beautiful, tumbling honeysucklle on the southern flank of the Black Cock Bridge, as they do every year when it’s in bloom. it’s ad, but it’s their hedge, I guess. But I’ll never understand it.

Now, i’ll have to make do with the other honeysuckle growing hereabouts – and there’s a lot of it, to be fair: Another think now profuse that wasn’t really about much when I was a kid.

This example, mingling beautifully in a tangled, glorious mess of brambles, lupins, cow parsley and bindweed, is growing on the embankment above the big house at Clayhanger, just on the edge of the canal towpath.

And thankfully, I’ve never seen anyone trim this one…

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2XFT7df
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Blackbirds and bees

July 2nd – On the same industrial estate, a treat for the bees and bugs is blooming beautifully – cotoneaster, a stable of urban hedgerows and borders.

The tiny pink-red flowers are a bee magnet and every bush is alive with visiting insects, but not just that: These flowers turn into sugar-laden orange-red berries beloved of blackbirds and other songbirds in autumn, helping get the avian locals through winter.

Everywhere you look right now, nature is helping itself get along. It really is beautiful.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2RQK9nR
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Hovering hawks

July 2nd – On a grass verge on an industrial estate near Darlaston, hoverflies  were busy pollinating the hawkweed flower – and both the flower and fly are overlooked stalwarts.

Hawkweed in all it’s forms is a common, bright splash of colour in town and country alike, and is a dweeler of the edgeland, wasteland and verge doing nothing more than providing beautiful flowers. Sadly often regarded as a weed or mistaken for dandelions, it gets sadly passed by but really is worth a look.

The hoverflies are one of the important pollinators, and although disguised to look like bees or wasps for protection from predators, they’re totally harmless.

Two unsung heroes, supporting each other…

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2Xv88zn
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Beaming

July 1st – Spotted near Norton Canes, on the edge of a building site, a sign of the season’s advance: Hornbeam seeds growing and ripening in the evening sun.

These are lovely trees with beautiful leaves I used to mistake for beech, and the seeds are beautiful too, hanging in cascades from the branches.

Always worth looking out for.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2XlEvLF
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Backtracked

July 1st – A better day, and a decent commute. I had to head up to Norton on my way back so I took the old railway line trail from where it crosses engine lane up to the A5.

Trains haven’t been here for near enough a century and the common here has now recovered well from 200 years of mining. It’s now peaceful and rather beautiful.

Could do without the off-road motorbikes tearing everything up though…

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2J6Y2f8
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Into the blue

June 30th –  A rest day, a day for bike maintenance and feeling a little bit down after the exertions of the previous days. The weather was less warm and it felt a bit like that had been summer.

I slipped out in the afternoon for a gentle spin and cruised a loop of Brownhills on a test ride. I felt OK, fluid, and not stiff, but I was already yearning to be out again – but the wind was quite strong and I really wasn’t into it. I ran some errands and caught up with things.

The landscape at Home farm was beautiful in its high summer jacket, and on the positive side, it does look now like summer has started.

As my ride reminded me, perhaps this was the start, not the end.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2FPcTZI
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking You’re having a laugh

June 29th – Spotted while I was on my way to calli at the Co-op on the way home: This wonderful frog, who appeared to be laughing.

I have no idea if frogs laugh or indeed, find anything funny. But this gorgeous creature posed for photos under bike light with the most wonderful facial expression.

I was very pleased to see it – not seen many frogs this year.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2XmUcaw
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Churnet up

June 29th – Since it was to be the hottest day of the year so far, I went for it again: Another ride out.

I rode up over Chorley to Armitage, and then up through Blithbury and Abbotts Bromley to Denstone, then up the Churnet Valley Trail to Alton, which always gives gorgeous views of the castle at Alton, evoking Bavaria or the Loire Valley.

From Alton to Oakamoor on the wonderful valley-floor lane called Red Road, then a quick break in the village and up Star Bank for a drink at the Old Star pub to cool down/ From there a loop round Windy Harbour and Caldon Lowe over the Weaver Hills, and back home through Ellastone, Marston Montgomey, Sudbury and Yoxall.

A fantastic ride on a perfect day.

This journal is moving home. Find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2NEUsxc
via IFTTT