Tag: Lichfield

May 8th – Another great ride of fifty miles – really getting back into the swing of it now. I set out into a surprisingly strong easterly wind on a very warm afternoon indeed. Cake at Fradley, then over to Alrewas, Catton and Walton; back over the Meccano bridge to Barton, Dunstable, Scotch Hills and Far Hoar Cross. Returning home through Morrey, Kings Bromley, Hanch and Chorley.

It’s hard not to love a ride that includes bluebells, a smiling boat, a warning of sluggish amphibians and all the songbirds.

An excellent ride. I’ve so been missing this.

May 4th – Summer seems finally to be on it’s way in. A warm, sunny day during which I had to visit telford, where the tulips in the station flowerbed are divine. On the way back from Lichfield, the daffodils were still strong in the hedgerows, and the oilseed rape was burning yellow in the fields.

Sunshine, it’s so good to have you back… please stay awhile.

April 16th – I rode into Lichfield to do some shopping and errands, and noticed how all the spring flowers were out. In Festival Gardens, the mascara or grape hyacinths were the deepest electric blue; by Minster Pool the tulips were a beautiful regiment of cream and St. Michael’s churchyard has a huge glade of wild garlic, bluebells and primroses.

Just that morning we’d had quite heavy snow showers.

This unusual but beautiful spring continues.

March 28th – It was a hectic, stressed day and I didn’t get much time to myself; but I swung out in the afternoon to nip into Stonnall. On the way I stopped to take a classic view – that of Lichfield from the quarry access road at Shire Oak.

It still stuns me that you can see so far from here on a clear day, and the detail with which once can capture the Old Lady of the Vale.

Note the cooling towers on the horizon are Willington, between Burton and Derby, and are in fact derelict.

February 18th – I passed through Lichfield just at the right time and had time to get this classic Lichfield shot. I think every local photographer has done this one at one time or another, but you really can’t resist such a gorgeous sight.

Lichfield, for a relatively flat place, does have some beautiful views.

December 28th – I’ve heard of this before, but never seen it. In the Three Spires precinct in Lichfield, as dusk fell, a barely-noticed commotion of bird fuss broke the gentle susurration of continued consumerism below. One single tree out of several, decorated in Christmas lights in a fashion that must have taken someone bloody ages, what must have been a hundred or more pied wagtails.

I’d heard they flock. These nippy, twitchy little birds live off bugs generally, and are a common sight in car parks and factory yards and other areas of open hardstanding where they can hunt unhindered, but usually in ones and twos.

I don’t know if they came for the berries, or just a party. Certainly, nothing was bothering them. A remarkable sight I was lucky indeed to see.