Tag: newton

#365daysofbiking A lifetime away

March 17th – On Lea Lane, between Newton and Admaston, a nice country house. Rambling, large, with half its garden oddly over the road, it’s a curious building.

What casual passers-by don’t realise in many cases is that this house, up until very, very recently, was actually a pub called The Wicket. In the middle of nowhere, I guess the pub had a hard time surviving, and closed like so many others. And now, you’d never know.

I went in there once. It was nice enough, but quiet as you’d expect. It seems odd now that I sat with a Guinness in what is now a total stranger’s lounge.

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June 15th – I really have got the taste for Birmingham and the Black Country’s canals. Another trip into the city after work on a grey, occasionally drizzly afternoon rewarded me with flowers, great bridges and interesting views.

You just know that if life were a video game, there would be a secret something behind that brickwork.

Really enjoyed the Tame Valley Canal today.

December 25th – Mrs. Muscovy was still in her favourite spot when I passed by. Still solitary and apparently contemplating. Escaped from the nearby smallholding, still resisting recapture, this funny fowl is inscrutable and something of a local canard celebrity.

I wished her a Merry Christmas, and after nearly a year on the run, bid the Newtown One another year of singular freedom.

August 11th – It was hard going – I had planned a ride from the Chase, across Staffordshire to Tutbury and back, with the wind behind me. But the wind kept changing direction, and never found my back. Instead, I headed up the canal to Hixon, then through Newton and along the southern periphery of Blithfield Reservoir. The views and countryside were great, but I just didn’t have it in me today. It was a hard 40 miles.