Tag: Shire Oak

February 25th – Caught in a short, sharp shower. The air suddenly went clear, and glass-hard. The traffic seemed to go a bit nuts, too. 

Despite it’s attempts to kill me, I love the Chester Road. Night or day, summer or winter, sunshine or rain, it’s both often my route out of here, and my way back home.

February 6th – I’d been in Telford, in a building with no windows. When I came to leave, I realised it was raining fairly heavily. Nothing to do, but don the waterproofs and go for it. The journey was pretty miserable, really; delays at Telford and Birmingham made for a long, damp trudge home, but at least the wind was behind me. 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a continuously warm, wet winter like this. Last year was bad enough, but at least we had variety with the snow. This is just getting boring now…

January 11th – It was a terrible ride out, if I’m honest. Despite the sunny day, like Boxing Day, the towpaths and trails were nothing but slop, and I was covered in mud. I had several silly mechanical issues with the bike,  including a puncture (no, I haven’t put the tape in yet!). I ended up on a short, abortive ride around Burntwood, Hammerwich and Springhill.

Despite all of that, the sunset was gorgeous.

This one goes out to Trevor in Australia, who I’m told isn’t too well right now. Get well soon, old chap.

January 10th – I don’t know where the rain came from. It had been a decent day, but I’d not taken any photos, but then I came to ride home and it rained quite heavily. For the second time this week I was caught without waterproofs, and I was not amused.

As I crossed the lights at Shire Oak I noticed the pub was busy. Apparently recent changed hands, it looked welcoming and friendly on an otherwise wet and grim night. 

January 4th – I’d been down to Stonnall on a fairly uninspiring ride; the weather was far more settled, the wind had dropped, but everywhere is still sodden. I couldn’t find a decent picture. Then, as I cycled up the Chester Road and over the brow of the hill, I realised we we in for a good sunset. I immediately decided to head for Chasewater, to try and catch it. On the way there, I realised it would be nearly over when I got there, so captured views along the way.

I do hope this is the start of a more settle period, but somehow, I doubt it.

December 27th – The same photo-expedition also saw me returning from Walsall Wood and heading to Stonnall. This meant climbing Shire Oak Hill from the Walsall side – whenever I do this, I always stop to look at the view. This is a fantastic urban skyline, and one I’ve always loved. 

Beauty can be found in the most mundane, plain landscapes if one looks.

October 25th – Although it was lightly raining, it was warm, and with the wind behind me I took the back way back to Brownhills, down the Lichfield Road and up over Springhill at Barracks Lane. 

I had a play with long exposure shots at Sandhills, and was quite pleased with the result, but puzzled too, when I looked at the images on the computer. In both, a wavy, oscillating thin trace of light is present above the main vehicle trails, which are very straight. I thought about these thin, curling traces for almost an hour, then I worked them out. 

They’re the light trail created by the reflection of street lights off the car windscreen, hence the curve and double back as the car enters the dominance of another lighting column. It’s quite mathematical, and I think it could be modelled with fairly basic locus mathematics.

I could be wrong, though…

October 22nd – I noted on my way to work the other day that ownership of the former Shire Oak Quarry – now a landfill for dry construction waste – has passed from Tarmac to JPE. I’m not sure why Tarmac sold it, but it was mothballed for a while after the slump in construction after 2008, to be reopened a couple of years later. 

I also noted that dust monitoring equipment has been installed, too. Wonder if that’s in response to local issues or a general requirement these days?

October 9th – There must be a good return on parsnips. I watched this mystery crop grow at Home Farm, Sandhills, from polythene covered strip mounds to lush, verdant foliage, from which readers identified the then mysterious crop. Harvesting has been ongoing for a week or two now – not everyday, but I imagine as often as demand occurs. Workers appear to sit in the shed-like trailer picking the root veg by hand, and tossing them onto a conveyor. Debris in one spot shows the crop was large and in good condition.

Don’t think I’ve ever seen parsnips grown in large quantities before. It’s certainly labour intensive to pick them.