April 17th – Another harbinger of spring: bluebells. First I’ve seen this year, spotted under a hedgerow in Shelfield. OK, they’re imported Spanish ones rather than the more traditional English variety, but they’re coming… and in the same patch, a few white ones for good measure.
Great to see.
April 17th – Awfully long range photos, but the group of deer were still on Jockey Meadows when I passed this evening – two stags and two does, looking very scruffy as they were heavily in moult.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that these animals now roam wild here. A fine sight.
April 16th – Jockey Meadows between Sheffield and Walsall Wood are also greening well – and early – this year. As I rode past on a warm but breezy evening in pleasant sunshine, I noticed that way over by the marsh, red deer were grazing – which must be a sign that the sedges and moss they like to eat best must be growing again.
Jockey Meadows are always beautiful, and unexpectedly so, wedged in between two urban areas – as a notified Site of Special Scientific Interest they’re well worth a visit – but take some wellies!
January 29th – I love goats, and it seems we have a local herd now. In the field by Jockey Meadows in which I saw Mr. Fox in last week, I’ve been noticing the goats for a couple of weeks, but they’ve never been close enough for a good photo. Today, they were trying to get through the hedge at Green Lane. It seems there are seven adults and four or five kids, with a rather impressive ram.
I have no idea who owns them, and I think they go wandering of their own accord sometimes; but on a grey, cold January morning seeing those little kids frolicking, jumping and having high jinks was a joy to the soul.
January 19th – Again, apologies for the long-range, poor photos, but I spotted this charming chap on Jockey Meadows. He was embarrassed as I caught him going about his ablutions, but he mooched around the meadow a little before sloping off into the hedgerow. Such a fit, lithe-looking chap; there are few animals more impressive in the English countryside than a fox in his prime.
A great sight on a nippy morning.
January 19th – A cold commute on a sunny morning, and lots of little delights; the mist off the canal, wildlife and plumes of steam and smoke drifting in mercifully still air. On Green Lane, Walsall Wood, road spray from the pooling water there had coated the adjacent hawthorn hedge and encased it in ice.
Beautiful and haunting.
January 6th – An early, grey commute was brightened by something I’d never seen before, a heron in Jockey Meadows. A fair way from the canal or Ryders Mere, it must either have been resting or hunting in the water meadows here.
The photos are awful, and very long distance, but I’ve never seen a heron here before.
It set me up for the day.
November 24th – I’m never sure what to make of this. It’s remarkable; it’s either a symbol of hope, or abject failure. I just can’t decide which…
This is the extent of Christmas lights in Sheffield. One tree, selected at random in a group of six, half covered with lights.
But hey, they change colour.
Why bother? I a ask myself. Then it makes me smile, and I think: why not?
November 14th – Home at a more normal time, but I couldn’t resist this quick shot. As I slid home on autopilot once more, a house in Green Lane, High Heath is ready for Christmas.
Seems a bit previous to me, but best wishes for the Christmas spirit and thanks for putting a smile on my face…
November 13th – A miserable, headache-coloured commute to work found me at work on a rush job until very late; I returned on wet tarmac in light drizzle through somnambulant suburbs. I was exhausted.
Green lane felt desolate, and matched what I felt, and by the time I got to the top of the Black Cock Bridge, I barely had the energy to push on into Brownhills.
I love cycling late at night, but I did this run very much on autopilot…
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