May 1st – Like an idiot, I left my camera at home this morning. I like the iPhone camera, but after the all-singing and dancing idiot box I’m used to, it seems very limited.
I left work earlier than usual, and on my way home shot over Shire Oak hill for a spin to Shenstone and back. The backlanes were glorious and sun bathed, and it really felt like spring out there.
I’ve missed this sort of thing in recent years. It’s good to get back to riding just for the hell of it.
April 28th – I returned gingerly, saddlebag laden with Dhansak, poppadoms and naan, up the Lichfield Road from Sandhills. That view across the fields of home Farm at sunset always makes me catch my breath; Ogley Hay, at it’s centre the 1850 parish Church of St James, in a view that’s changed little in a century.
Beautiful.
April 26th – Things that happen while you’re not looking. In the last week, my favourite tree on the edge of Home Farm, Sandhills has burst into life. I love that horse chestnut, and I judge the seasons by it. It’s a handsome tree that can be seen from the canal at Catshill, and I watch it’s progress carefully.
Reassuring to see it green for another year, in such lovely spring sunshine.
April 21st – Another bitingly cold morning, but in Mill Green, the early sunlight – obscured the day before – caught the light, rising mist and rendered it precious.
It made up for the frozen fingers. Second day running I’ve awoken to ice on the grass. Cast n’er a clout…
January 10th – Over to Burntwood to get some shopping in, I went via the canal and Chasewater. Just at Home Farm, where Brawn’s Wood used to be, I noted a new gap in the hedgerow, stomped down. It didn’t look man-made, and there’s no beneficial human shortcut I can see here; but earlier in the week I noted deer footprints coming off Clayhanger Common near Catshill Junction Bridge and I thing they’re probably coming this way now and on to the fields at Springhill and Sandhills.
Further on, on this clear, hard and windy day, Hammerwich and beyond to Lichfield Cathedral were very visible and made interesting zoom photos.
How I adore that view, and this stretch of canal.
December 29th – The return was no less magical, but very challenging. I was mentally and physically exhausted when I got home. I’ve never seen black ice this bad, and by the time night fell, it was very challenging riding indeed on all but the main routes. It was good though, to see the sunset reflected in the snowy pink-white landscape, and my old muse Rugeley Power Station was clearly at full tilt.
The mist rolling off the Trent at Wolseley Bridge was enchanting, too, but I saw too many cars slid off the lanes around Longdon to feel comfortable on the roads, despite the ice tyres.
I was glad to get home, but glad to have seen this, to have experienced it and to feel that pain in my forehead and the icy grip on my chest.
It’s not often one feels so connected to the environment.
June 22nd – Riding (unusually for me, it’s a long story) up the A460 through Rugeley, I spotted this bit of arsehattery masquerading as cycling infrastructure. This is a ‘mandatory’ cycle lane, as indicated by the solid white line. Mandatory in this context means it doesn’t have to be used by the cyclist, but that traffic shouldn’t occupy it or park in it.
So far so good.
So they run it close to an oblique parking bay, on the left. What could possibly go wrong?
What’s wrong with this picture, kids?
June 20th – I came back along the lanes around Stonnall for the first time in a while. On such a warm, sunny afternoon they were a delight to the soul, and very green and peaceful.
At Stonnall itself, I noted the barn conversion at the top of Main Street is nearly complete. A beautiful, painstaking job, the pointing alone has been a work of art. I was initially shocked when the covering bushes were cut down, but this is a sympathetic and lovely conversion and the craftspeople and designers should be proud. I love the way the dovecote in the eaves has been preserved, too.
A fine thing indeed.
November 5th – Today was April again. Chilly, a morning punctuated by sharp showers, but lit up by remarkable periods of sunshine. I headed to Shenstone for no other reason than the countryside was gorgeous, and I could spare the extra time. The rainbow was wonderful.
I love these lanes.
November 3rd – Today, the season’s wheel clicked round another notch. The wind that so harangued me the day before had died right down, but the temperature had dropped, too. Today, I realised once and for all that winter, if not quite on her throne, was certainly waiting in the wings.
I left mid afternoon, with grand ideas of tearing up the Chase, but I was dressed too lightly and I felt cold and despite the sun, quite down in the dumps, if I’m honest. No reason to be, other than the passage of warmth and the advancing of the seasons; this time of year I always wonder if I have the strength inside to face another winter of dark nights, cold commutes and lifeless countryside.
I headed up over Chasewater and Cuckoo Bank, down Rainbow Hill and over Slitting Mill. A quick coffee at sunset, and back over Penkridge Bank. I saw deer, but it was too dark to get a good picture. Returning cold and in darkness, I felt a world away from warm, sunny afternoons. I was heavy hearted and my very bones ached.
I bloody hate this time of year.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 