Tag: seasons

April 13th – Only mid April, yet the canal at Lindon Road, Brownhills is greening up well. On a cold evening as I headed on an errand up to Ogley Hay it was cold, but there is spring everywhere. I can’t really get over how quickly and seamlessly we seem to have progressed to this. It doesn’t seem five minutes ago it was Christmas.

Who knows where the time goes?

It would be nice if last week’s sun and warmth came back to see us, though…

April 2nd – The shoots and leaves are coming now, and it makes me happy. Spotted beside the cycleway in Goscote, and interesting variety of nascent foliage, and once again, the greening commences. 

I adore the promise of this time of year; it may be grey and dull now, but these signs of life promise warm days, sunshine, long rides and open trails.

Bring it on.

April 1st – It doesn’t feel like spring right now – another pair of wind-blasted, periodically damp commutes; but in the hedgerows, verges and field-margins nature is stirring. The pussy willows are flowering well, the blackthorn is smattered with blossom and there are the bright green shoots of a new growing season beginning to show.

I have the feeling that if I hold on, spring will kick in very shortly…

Which is just as well, as today is the 4th birthday of this journal. On April 1st, 2011, fellow cyclist and full time Dutch Cycling Girl Renee Van Baar persuaded me to do #30daysofbiking for the April social media project. The rest is history.

I have ridden a bike without fail every day for four years, all but for two lost days to illness over New Year 2011/12. I have now cycled well over 1,000 days continuously, and logged a picture or short film from every day.

I couldn’t give up now. This is ingrained in me, as part of my daily riding habit. Tens of thousands of miles in everything from bright sunshine to heavy snow, I’ve chronicled my life on two wheels. The drive to keep the journal keeps me connected with my environment and still makes me look at things afresh, and sometimes, gets my arse into gear when I otherwise wouldn’t.

I will continue this as long as I’m able, but if it gets embarrassing or unseemly, just tell me to stop. Relying on you lot there, so I am…

Thanks for riding with me. I’ve had a great time so far, and I’m looking forward to a great summer. You lot up for it?

March 18th – Gone 6:30pm, and still not dark. I stopped on Catshill Junction Bridge, and took a throwaway shot of the Humphries House flats, looking ghostly in the half-light. 

The more I use it, the happier I am with this camera. There’s clearly a lot more fiddling to be had yet, and I must sit down and read the manual. But for a point and shoot operated by a monkey, it doesn’t do bad.

March 9th – Early, Jockey Meadows. Still grey and dormant, with no hints of spring yet. The last place to wake up in these parts, it has its own desolate beauty in winter. 

The cows that were here last summer are long gone, but their work – the removal of some of the most invasive species, and trimming back the long grass – remains.

It’ll be interesting to see the difference they’ve made when the meadow comes to life in a few weeks.

March 6th – Bloody hell Bob, not crocuses again!

Yes, crocuses. After the months of riding in dark, damp and cold, the brightness of the first spring flowers to me is magical, enchanting, life-affirming and beautiful. Like a hot shower after a long sleep, it’s awakening and you could enjoy it forever.

These are in Walsall Wood High Street, and remain, as every year I see them, a credit to those who planted them.

Thank you.

March 4th – Spring is really here. It’s not just the yellow crocuses in Kings Hill Park now, but the purple and white ones, too. Daffodils have joined the party, and the whole place looks gorgeous.

I know the daffs are early varieties, but they are gorgeous and a reminder that once the genie of spring has appeared, you can’t really get it back in the bottle.

Such a joy to the heart.

March 3rd – Cold, windy. Horrid journeys to work, fast and fun journeys back. It seems we’re in for a blustery spring, but it was light nearly all the way home tonight – another week, and I might get home in the light.

Ah, blessed light.

I’ve been fiddling with the new camera – astoundingly to me, these shots were all handheld (I don’t have steady hands). This one seems more sensitive, if that’s the word, and seems to select a faster shutter in lower light than previous models. I’m liking it a lot.

It was a fair sunset tonight, but clear, and harsh. I was glad to get in.

February 25th – And then there’s Kings Hill Park, too. I couldn’t resist swinging past on this fine morning to check out the crocuses – and to my surprise, the snowdrops were also out in force; the ones here must be a later flowering variety.

Am I imagining it, or do yellow crocuses flower before other colours? Plenty of yellow ones about, but not so many violet.

After seeing these, you can’t fail to go to work with happiness in your heart: spring is coming, and nothing can stop it now.