March 30th – The day was a little more summery than that previously and on my way home I nipped up the canal to see if the field of oilseed rape was out yet at Home Farm.
It’s getting there, it’s getting there. About another week to ten days, depending on how warm and sunny it is.
I love the smell, the colour and the spectacle of the sun-loving brassica. A real sign summer is coming!
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March 27th – Slipping home in the early evening, I couldn’t resist that quick hop up the canal to see how my favourite tree over at Home Farm was doing. I thought maybe I could seee a hint of green on it, but I think it was wishful thinking.
I gauge the seasons by that venerable, perfectly shaped horse chestnut tree. It’s as part of my life as cycling or drinking tea.
And tonight, in this most imperial of golden hours, it looked splendid.
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February 15th – Another weekend, another storm, this time the more mundanely named Dennis.
Dennis was a sod though, bringing heavy rain and high wind.
Slipping out on a foul afternoon to get shopping I hit the saturated towpath to Burntwood. An attempt to plough has been made at Home Farm, Sandhills and seemingly abandoned due to muddiness.
The wind howled and rain sang on the surface of the water.
The only bright spot was the Millfield Commemorative Stones – over 130 of them – that had been driven over by a Canal and River Trust contractor – have been lovingly recovered, washed and placed back in position by local man Micheal Newton Turner, who saw my blog post on the matter.
I sent him an Amazon voucher to thank him for his hard, selfless work.
Brightness in unexpected places is always a joy.
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January 31st – I see with their usual subtlety and lack of attention to detail (more on that in a post on my main blog coming up soon) the Canal and River Trust have flailed the hedges along the canal towpath between Anchor Bridge and Brownhills.
This makes for a thorny hazard for cyclists with normal tyres as the flailed thorns are devils for causing punctures.
It’s right to do it this time of year, before birds nest of course, and lord knows, the job needed doing – but the tractor they used has again churned up the grass, and the aggressive mowing has continued, with nascent daffodils cropped along with the grass.
I have no idea what’s motivated the trust to carry out this manic bout of mowing everything to within a millimetre of living but I wish they’d tale a deep breath and think about it more.
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December 25th – Happy Christmas!
A traditional Christmas Day bike ride, but only as far as Chasewater sadly and I noticed something I’d not spotted before: The memorial stones along the canal at Millfield near Home Farm at Sandhills, and the fact that the school on the other side have adopted the stretch of canal from Ogley Junction to Anchor Bridge.
This means they’ll tend it and I guess litter pick it and undertake lovely little projects like the individually painted memorial stones, I guess.
Great stuff.
I do wish the school wouldn’t use a windmill for a logo, though. The Mill field the school was built upon was originally that of a steam mill, now flats, pretty much next door to the school. It was a state of the art temple to Victorian mechanisation.
Never mind…
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November 16th – Another wet and grey day, another errand: I had to pop over to Shenstone and then to Lichfield at teatime. The wind was hell coming home and the rain sporadic. It wasn’t;t a great ride if I’m honest.
Coming back up the A461 to Shire Oak over the Summerhill motorway bridge, since there was a break in the rain, I tried a long exposure with the G5X. Interesting result, but I needed more traffic – unlikely at this time on a Saturday, to be honest.
With the wind against me, rain starting and no fuel in my tank (I’d forgotten to eat during the day) the ride uphill was not nice.
Still, it was nice to get home.
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September 28th – Out in the afternoon for an errand in Lichfield, and I noticed that the deer had trampled a gap in the hedge near Home Farm from the canal towpath at Catshill, again returning a good view of my favourite tree – the magnificent horse chestnut near the farmhouse.
Surprisingly, it has yet to become very autumnal.
However, a lone oddity in the foreground caught my attention: A solitary, large sunflower going at the field margin.
A truly wild specimen, it can only have got there via the mechanism of bird digestion.
What a fine serendipitous thing!
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September 14th – I left in the afternoon after a bad morning at work and a day of family errands and hassle.
Heading up to Chasewater on the canal, the skies were overcast and dark and matched my mood beautifully.
Autumn is starting to come now to my favourite local views over Home Farm to Sandhills, Hammerwich and the local canal. Nothing can stop it, and as usual, after the initial horror of summer’s end, I’m getting to love it.
But some peace and quiet would be nice…
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September 1st – Autumn is on my heels now, and slipping out after a day’s bike maintenance for a test ride, I found myself in the most beautiful pink-suffused twilight.
Heading up the canal that snakes its way between Catshill and Sandhills, I admired my favourite tree at Home Farm – now showing hints of getting on it’s autumn jacket – and the plains of stubble to Stonnall, the harvest now in.
It was peaceful, warm and pleasant, with just a hint of cold air. We are in the odd interregnum between seasons, that saddest crossover between a summer passed and an Autumn to come.
But with a crescent moon and tranquility like this to enjoy, it’s not so melancholy.
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August 24th – It would appear that herons will eat not only fish and amphibians, but small rodents too.
Home Farm at Sandhills were getting their wheat in – watched carefully by an undaunted heron, who was clearly hoping for something squeaky and furry for tea.
I never knew herons did this, but apparently it’s fairly common. Remarkable birds.
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