Tag: seasons

October 28th – An irritating day where I forgot my camera and everything happened at top speed, so little time to take photos. I’d been over to Telford in the afternoon and came back from Shenstone as dusk fell.

These lanes, I know them so well; they run though my veins like blood. I must have ridden this route thousands of times, and certainly many with the impending feeling of autumn I had today.

I know I will again ride this way on a springtime, sunny day and the wheel will continue it’s inexorable rotation, but tonight, in the gathering dark, it felt a very long way off.

I hate the dark months.

October 25th – I’d been to Droitwich to see a customer and get some other bits and pieces done, and noted that the Autumn there too was very special, with the wide main roads lined with a variety of trees in excellent seasonal hues.

On my return from the station, I slipped through Little Aston Forge and Bosses, where I spotted the crimson ivy gable wall, and the driveway bed of beautiful flowers.

The last few days really have been beautiful out there.

October 23rd – For the final light Sunday evening of 2016, I went up to Packington Moor and up the greenway called Knox’s Grave Lane, across Common Barn, then through the deciduous woodland of Hopwas Hays. It was chilly, but the sun was bright, mellow and warming and autumn was beautiful The leaves are really turning now, and the the recently relaid tracks of the woodland were nice to ride.

The sunset, too, was excellent, although sad that it came little after six, with this the first sunset before 6pm of the autumn. Sadly, with the end of BST, next week it will be before five…

A great ride, with the best of Autumn on show. If you can get to Hopwas in the next week or so, do so. Its beautiful.

October 21st – Riding to work along the canal in Walsall in the early morning, I noticed how green parts of the towpath margins still were – the bracken hasn’t yet turned at Bentley Bridge and the dead nettles are full in flower for the second burst this year.

This has been a peculiar autumn, with many things coming into bloom a second time before dying off. The weather really has been kind to us this year, but I can’t help feeling winter is going to be a shock to the system.

October 18th – Another lovely golden hour, this time as I came through Walsall Wood and the Black Cock Bridge. The sun reflected off the golden leaves beautifully and rendered the farmhouse precious.

As the sun receded further, the skies were dramatic over Clayhanger, too. 

The sunsets at this time of year are fantastic.

October 16th – I remember when we just used to get plain old moons, but these days every full moon is special for one reason or another – a harvest moon, a supermoon, a hunters moon, which this was – all of a sudden every appearance of this old familiar has to be special.

Which is daft, really, because the moon always is special. Caught from near George’s Hayes, Longdon, it was low and made orange by the atmosphere. 

I never tire of looking at the moon.

October 16th – Still, one can’t deny the beauty of the season. A far more positive ride out over the Chase, into that open, cinematic landscape where it’s hard not to feel utterly connected to the surroundings. The leaves and bracken are turning and it really is beautiful out there. 

The chilliness of the day also kept a lot of folk at home and it was a lot more peaceful than during the summer. That’s the first time I’ve seen Stepping Stones deserted for ages.

I came back over the Shugborough Estate and noted that while it’s changing custodians from Staffordshire County Council to the National Trust, there’s an awful end-of-days, deserted, unloved feel to the place. Sad, really, as autumn is the best time of year to see it.

The heron, fishing in the river by the Packhorse Bridge seemed oblivious, though…

October 15th – Further on, I hopped on the Spot Path back to Pier Street, and autumn is clearly well afoot now; leaves are turning and falling, and there’s that unmistakable nip to the air. It’s also getting dark now only a little past six pm – and in a week or so, the clocks will be going back and it’s the time of darkness once more.

Although autumn is lovely, I hate what it leads to.