Tag: sandhills

May 10th – Going stir crazy, I escaped again at sunset, and headed up to Chasewater, just for the hell of it. I was captivated by the colour of a late-spring sunset, by the huge, yellow moon over Sandhills and the mist rising off the surface of the canal due to an inversion.

It’s a long time since I caught a sunset and dusk as lovely as this. After a very trying few days, it was lovely to be out in the dead calm and still, to feel the night chill encroaching and hear the soft sounds of Chasewater at dusk – calling birds, lapping water and the chatter of ducks and geese.

Recovery needs many things, but one thing that really does help is peace and beauty when you least expect them.

May 7th – First decent ride out for a week or to, to be honest. An afternoon spin up through Lichfield, Alrewas and Cotton to Rosliston Forestry Centre for tea and cake, then back via Coton in the Elms, Netherseal, Chilcote, Honey Hill and Harlaston.

A harsh northern was challenging, but blew me home, and the sights were beautiful in the warm sun. The ducks are still about at Coton and if that one doesn’t have the spirit of Elvis in him, I’m a Dutch uncle.

Not sure what I did to offend the striped cat at Whittington, but it was well cross with me…

A lovely ride, marred only by the unwelcoming attitude, poor cake and service at Rosliston: a piece of advice to fellow cyclists – go to the Honeypot instead. Not only was I served heavy, poor cake in a polystyrene takeaway box, but was treated like an irritation at 4:30pm when advertised closing is 5pm, but staff having a break discussing how ‘cyclists shouldn’t be on the road’ made me vow never to give the place my custom ever again. 

March 25th – First decent-length ride of the year in nice weather, still a very keen, cold wind but the sun was warm on my back, especially when stationary. 

A run to Rosliston and back via my summer haunts of Coton in the Elms and Clifton Campville was just what the doctor ordered, and I enjoyed the ride.

The ride passed my favourite horse chestnut at Home Farm, Sandhills, visible from the canal. I judge the seasons and watch them pass by the condition of this fine tree. I think there is a suggestion of fresh green there: just a hint.

For a large gallery of this ride, see this post here on the main blog.

March 13th – This is a terrible photo, and sorry about that, but the mood I was in precluded concentrating on image quality; but the subject did very much cheer me up. On the way home, I rode up Shire Oak Hill from Stonnall in the dark. Since I was tired and not 100%, I rode up the pavement, as I feared my speed would not keep with the traffic. It was then I noticed them.

Loads of clumps of beautiful, white spring snowflakes – leucojum vernum- which are very like snowdrops, but the blooms are more bell shaped, the plants taller, with more foliage. Each flower has tiny green tips to the petals which the harshness of the flash sadly stripped away in the photo.

These gorgeous flowers grow in increasing numbers in this spot every year and they always surprise me. Today, on this dark and weary night, they were a real tonic.

February 27th – Another wolfish day, but with a softer wind. A horrid morning commute – into a headwind with driving rain – was not a great start to the week, and through the day, the yin and yang of rain and shine battled across the sky, even resulting in one point at a fall of snow.

I had to go to Lichfield on an errand and I successfully dodged the rain, returning fortuitously in a gorgeous semi-golden hour through the backlanes of Wall.

The fields are emerald green now, with fresh crops growing well; the sky was pleasingly azure between the clouds, even at gone 5pm and spring does seem to be ready to assume her throne.

Not a bad end to a day that didn’t start with a great deal of promise…

November 27th – It was a very dramatic-looking afternoon as I headed up the canal towards Lichfield on this cold afternoon suffused with golden, low sunlight.

I note from my favourite tree – the lovely horse chestnut at Home Farm, Sandhills – that it is now winter, as it’s bare. 

As I noted yesterday, surprising how much colour is still in the landscape.

October 6th – I’d had to nip into Birmingham and Lichfield on the way home, and came back down the A461 at Summerhill long after darkness had fallen, so I thought I’d try some long exposures from the M6 Toll bridge there. 

They didn’t come out too badly for 30 second shots. Interesting that the traffic is so light, vehicles rarely stray out of the inside lane…. 

October 4th – Winching myself up Shire Oak Hill at Sandhills at sunset, I noticed the potatoes in the fields that stretched to the canal had been stripped of their foliage ready for harvest. I love that view of Ogley Hay and St. James from here, and it looked beautiful and autumnal. 

Elsewhere, harvested fields have already been ploughed, harrowed and replanted, with spring-like carpets of green sprouting winter crops, with almost springlike colour.

Whatever time of year, the farming continues.

September 21st – I’d had to nip to Birmingham late, and came back to Shenstone. There had been heavy weather about, but I’d managed to evade it al day.

When it caught me in the lanes on the way home, it wasn’t messing about. I was like a drowned rat.

Still, like summer rain tends to be, once I was wet through, it was quite enjoyable and not cold. And it hasn’t rained much of late, after all.

Lets hope it’s just a blip.

September 17th – A bad day in lots of ways, but a sunset ride to sort the head out worked wonders. Heading up the canal to Chasewater the scenery was beautiful and the light golden. My favourite tree at Home Farm, Sandhills is laden with conkers and just showing signs of autumn, and the view to Hammerwich was gorgeous.

On the canal at Newtown, the Newtown one minded her own business, unconcerned by the stalking black cat, who seemed a bit peeved at my appearance.

If autumn promises more of this, it can stay around…