January 29th – Despite an icing sugar dusting of snow and a very cold wind, the dates and emergent daffodils of the industrial estate where I work know spring is a thing.
Jack in the Green has tapped the ground with his stick and it’s all systems go.
The cold might slow things up a few days, but it’s underway now. It’s coming.
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January 28th – Passing through Kings Hill Park on a mercifully sunny, chilly day, I noted the progress of the snowdrops and crocuses, with the early-appearers looking wonderful in the sunlight.
I’m a bit worried about Kings Hill Park. Not one of Walsall Council’s premier parks, it seems to be losing some funding and last year, although kept beautifully tidy. the flower planters seemed rather neglected, which is a shame as they’ve always been gorgeous.
Kings Hill Park is a gem of a place, sited on largely reclaimed former industrial land, and is a jewel in the urbanity along the Walsall-Sandwell border.
I hope it gets a bit more love this year.
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January 25th – I noticed not long after I left work that on this wet evening it was a balmy 12 degrees or so, and that sunset now didn’t arrive until 4:40pm – that means it’s pretty much light now until 5pm.
It was a horrid journey home but the improving conditions made me feel better.
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January 18th – Despite the cold, spring was still gently pushing forward in a garden in Darlaston – with snowdrops in full bloom and crocuses now up and in bud.
At such a very cold, grey time it’s good to see some signs of spring around the corner.
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January 16th – Although, on the way home I stopped to take a call and noticed that sunset was now over thirty minutes later the at Christmas.
Soon, it will be 5pm. And I will start to see fingers of the day creep into the skies of my journeys home.
Can’t come soon enough…
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January 10th – The signs of life continue in the still overall very mild winter; pansies and the first snowdrops – not here a week ago – in Kings HJill Park, Darlaston.
It’s great to see them, they really bring a splash of welcome colour to a grey world.
Just hope we don’t get a cold snap to set them back – after all, last spring was very late. Let’s have an early one this year, eh?
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January 7th – But there’s always brightness, and just now, everywhere reminders that while still not here, spring is only just around the corner.
In a garden in kings Hill where in summer I see old Sam the cat, pots of flowers – fancy miniature daffodils and primroses of some sort I think.
Whatever they are, they cheered me right up. Thank you!
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January 2nd – Back on the 21st December my heart was lifted, as it always its, by the thought that we’d had the shortest day of the year, and that now the sunset would get later and later and the night and darkness would retreat for another year.
Well, not two weeks later, and the sunset is already 10 minutes later than it was on that day.
Ten minutes may not seem much, but it’s significant. Although the timetable to which the day lengthens is fixed, the rapidity of the change is always impressive to me and the retreat of night, being loosely sinusoidal, accelerates as we escape winter.
That six hundred seconds of gleaned light mean that on a clear day, it’s not really dark until well after 4:30pm. Soon light will leak into my evening commutes, and all will be well again.
I so hate the darkness.
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Christmas Day – A Christmas Day ride was a tradition long before I started 365daysofbiking – there’s nothing better to prepare for a big meal than a good blast on the bike.
Today, my options were confined as my time was limited, so I opted for a fast run up the canal to Chasewater. On the way, I noticed this fungus – tramates of some sort I think – on a felled tree by the M6 Toll.
Unusual to find it in midwinter looking so good. Possibly a sign of the unusually warm season so far.
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December 14th – Gosh, that was a shock.
I was heading for home early, but it was cold, so very cold and sharp. I looked at the GPS for the temperature – -2.7C at 6:45pm. It felt enough to freeze the bollocks from off a fox.
It looks like winter has arrived, my friends…
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