June 6th – One of the lovely, accidental features of Clayhanger Common is the well-worn pathway through the green thicket arch behind the Cala overflow at Clayhanger Bridge.
Every year it forms again – it’s like a portal to a green netherworld.
It always makes me smile when I see it.
April 7th – Ogley Junction Footbridge is mystifying me a little. The bridge itself and deck were restored beautifully, to much local praise. The remainder of the work – the spit and polish, if you like, hats been patchy.
The pathway off the bridge was originally remade badly, and now has been dug out and corrected, which is good to see. But the bit baffling me is the masonry.
The brickwork on the wing walls has been vary sparingly pointed, here and there. To me, it looks like it all could have done with doing, and bits still seem to be in a parlous state. I’m prepared to accept the work might be ongoing and not finished yet, but if it is a work in progress, there’s no logical pattern to completion whatsoever.
A bit of a conundrum.
November 23rd – I mentioned this earlier in the week, but it’s deadly at the moment, so bears mentioning again – watch the paths and cycleways at the moment. They’re more slippery than a grease deal dipped in baby oil.
Algea, leaf mulch and general damp slime are combining to make the less well used paths treacherous. I nearly lost the bike twice today. The main reason is.a few days of light drizzle, but not enough rain to actually cleanse anything.
Although the routes in Telford are beautiful, they are to be ridden very, very carefully – and they’ll be in the same state everywhere.
June 14th – The desire-path created behind the canal overflow at Clayhanger continues to fascinate me, particularly in the way the arch has formed in the scrub.
I don’t know who’s walking this way regularly enough to keep it so clear – it may even bee the deer who dwell on the common – but whoever it is has created a charming, odd little portal that could be to a fairy tail place, or just to Clayhanger…
Not much difference between the two, really…
December 8th – In Telford briefly, I tried a different route to Hortonwood and the cycleway led me from a lower path up to an elevated road.
Telford is crisscrossed by cycleways and paths, many totally undocumented and unknown to casual visitors, but once discovered, they’re lovely. Note these steps have a ‘wheeling channel’ up the right hand side so you can walk up them whilst wheeling your steed.
October 28th – One thing that does fascinate me on the cycle path in Telford is the way the trees and scrub have grown awkwardly through the fences. There are lots of instances like this – where the sapling crossed through the mesh, and the tree is so large now it’s consuming the fece by growing around and through it.
I’d have thought the constriction would have killed the tree, but it seem,s to have done OK considering, proving just how adaptable nature really is.
October 19th – I had to make a quick trip to Telford in the afternoon. Riding from the station on the cycleway, I noticed what a beautiful autumnal tunnel I was riding in.
It really is most beautiful. How fantastic this must be in the sunshine!
July 14th – Called to Telford mid morning in soft rain, I was struck by how green and tunnel-like the cycleways to Hortonwood have become. The council here cut so far up the hedges, but the upper boroughs overhang and form an almost complete arch. Riding down them in even this grey daylight makes them an emerald delight, but in sunlight, they are magical green pathways, lined with foliage, fruits and flowers.
Beauty in the everyday.
January 21st – On a grey, depressing day, I stopped to check out the new magic bicycle symbols added to the footpath in Pleck just by the motorway Bridge on the Darlaston Road. I guess this is part of the commitment to safer cycling routes with the road improvement scheme here. It’s dismal.
A bit of tactile paving, blacktop some verges and a splurge of magic paint. A grim, shared use path hazardous for pedestrians and cyclists, along the front of a factory gates with little visibility.
The people who design and implement this rubbish aren’t cyclists. They aren’t thinking about cyclists. They’re ticking boxes on a form to satisfy a requirement.
This is why we can’t have nice things, people…
January 3rd – My dislocation was compounded by the darkness. Despite the moonlight, the town seemed very dark and deserted, from the alley at the rear of the church to the footpath over the spot, which I rode over to Clayhanger to visit a pal.
Sometimes I hate the darkness. Sometimes it’s my best friend. Right now, I just wish it would hang back a bit.
Roll on spring.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 