rural | BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

Posts tagged ‘rural’

#365daysofbiking Misty mellow morning

September 17th – My sadness at the end of summer and oncoming winter slides in and out, accompanied usually by a delight at the new season.

They say that drowning is quite pleasurable if you stop fighting it. Autumn and the oncoming darkness are a bit like that for me.

Early morning in Mill Green, on my way to the early train, the mist, low sun and autumnal fields combine and give me a reason to be positive about things.

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#365daysofbiking Garden tiger

August 4th – I had a call to make over in Bridgtown and I was pushed for time so I blasted down the A5 and over the challengingly complex Churchbridge Islands, just for the hell of it. 25 minutes later, my errand was complete and I returned via Great Wyrley, intending to check out a lost lane I’d been meaning to do for a while.

In Hazel Lane, I startled this handsome set of stripes and whiskers who was stalking something small and squeaky in the hedge. What a fine garden tiger!

An absolutely gorgeous cat who was clearly very annoyed with me for disturbing it’s activities!

Someone if very proud of that puss, and justifiably so.

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#365daysofbiking No place like home

August 2nd – One of the more surprising developments happening locally at the moment is the new care home being built on the Chester Road at Stonnall, on the site of a former concrete block factory and quarry.

The home – which is a large, impressive and has the appearance of being very well built has risen over winter and the preceding spring and seems to be nearing completion.

This doesn’t look to be your average granny farm, but rather a specialist care facility for older folk with particular challenging needs and I think it’s the kind of thing that is needed here with our raging population – and the jobs it provides will be welcome, too.

Part of the development includes road safety improvements here on the Chester Road, which is good to see.

I wish the proprietors and future residents well in this new venture.

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#365daysofbiking The golden hour

August 2nd – This week has been all about seasonal markers, and this evening as I left Shenstone for Stonnall and home, the harvest was well underway.

The fashion for huge, cylindrical baling seems to have ceased and we seem to be back to the more space efficient (and stable!) rectangular ones.

As ever, the machinery, synchronicity between drivers and sheer power of the operation is breathtakingly impressive, and a reminder that the countryside is still a huge, open air factory floor dedicated to our sustenance.

Always impressive to watch.

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#365daysofbiking It must be spring!

March 15th – Heading home from the station after a long afternoon legal meeting in Birmingham, in order to mitigate a rather evil wind, I took to the back lanes.

On my way, I passed this wonderful sight, which catches me by surprise every spring.

They must have been planted by some wonderful individual as they go in colour bands.

A beautiful thing.

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#365daysofbiking Semaphore

March 11th – A trip to Droitwich made a pleasant change.It’s not often I come out here these days – the younger folk in the team generally do it those jobs now, but sometimes I like to pay a call for the adventure of it.

Droitwich Station is interesting – the line here hints at a much busier past, with derelict sidings and a large signal box, but today the line is pretty sleepy and rural.

I’m interested to see that here, old mechanical semaphore signals are still in use, which always seem terrifically heath Robinson to me. They are a masterpiece of rods, wires, rollers and mechanical interlocking and it’s a wonder how they keep working so long.

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#365daysofbiking Through the haze

September 1st – I headed out to Whittington Country Fair and Craft Show (a large gallery from which can be seen on my main blog here) along Bullmoor Lane and through Wall on a warm, lovely late summer day.

This lane has always captivated me; diverted south to accommodate the toll motorway, a hill was created at one end 15 years ago that now gives commanding views of the treetops to Wall Village, with little hint of the motorway and A5 between.

A gorgeous, little known gem.

#365daysofbiking Fixed in a Hole

August 31st -For the first time in years, I travelled down Hobs Hole Lane which runs from Aldridge down to the Chester Roa, and I’d forgotten just how beautiful the rolling countryside of Bourne Vale and Lazy Hill is.

I must get down here again soon. It’s a beautiful spot and we’re lucky to have it nearby, and I bet it’s lovely in autumn.

March 24th – I had stuff to do at home, and didn’t get out until after dark, when I nipped down to Stonnall to call at a pal’s house.

Stonnall is an interesting village; it seems to be sprawling and dormitory now, and I caused a bit of a fuss a few years ago on this journal for likening it to Stepford; but the housing here from the postwar decades does seem to have enveloped what must have been quite a characterful place, and I find that the older buildings and their charm only become really evident now after dark.

It’s a nice enough place, for sure, but time hasn’t been kind to it.

March 2nd – The snow arrived in the late afternoon, one of those deceptive snowfalls with very fine flakes that deposits a large amount un a short time.

I went down to Stonnall to explore as night fell, and the deserted lanes of Lower Stonnall, with skeletal trees and an almost blue light were gorgeous.

There was no sign of trouble as I crossed Shire Oak but 30 minutes later, lorries and cars were stranded on the hill and there was chaos.

A beautiful and unforgettable journey.