Tag: Shire Oak

February 21st – It’s been cold, and the wind has been evil. Not particularly strong, but it’s from the east and is lazy; it doesn’t so much blow around you as straight through. Tired tonight after a hard day at work, I really couldn’t face the prospect of a headwind all the way home. So I got the train to Shenstone, and cycled back home from there.

I stopped for a picture just at the bottom of Shire Oak Hill. I haven’t cycled this route much this winter. The wind was behind me, but it was still cold. This hill doesn’t get any less steep either, but the lights are gorgeous in the dusk.

Tonight, this hill gave me a very hard time. Shire Oak Hill is an old adversary, and like all old adversaries, life wouldn’t be the same without it.

January 28th – The weather continues to be warm and windy. Fighting it coming home from work, it was hard to believe that only a few days before, it was sub-zero temperatures and ling snow. No trace remained as I hauled the bike over Shire Oak Hill. The lights of the pub looked welcoming, and the temptation to pop in for a swift pint was strong.

October 15th – One of the things about riding a bike is that you get to study vehicles in a way that most folk don’t. I’ve spent large amounts of time behind cars, wondering how the  bodywork was fitted together, of behind weird and wonderful lorries, working out just what everything on them does. It was while I was waiting in the queue at the Shire Oak junction today that I noticed this interesting feature on a tipper lorry. Tucked in the back, below the main body, is a camera and light, clearly for reversing purposes. It must be a fairly common feature, but I’d not noticed one before – presumably, it’s monitored by the driver. Only snag is, there’s no automatic lens cleaning, and it must get pretty mucky under there. Wonder if the driver was munching on a Yorkie and watching me whilst he waited?

October 11th – Coming back from Lichfield, the weather quickly turned grim. There was a real downpour, and without my usual armoury of waterproofs, I had no choice but to get wet. With every passing wagon on the A461, it was like being jet washed. I arrived home cold, wet, exhausted and thoroughly dejected. Why do I do this again?

September 5th – the fruiting will soon be upon us. Already, I’m seeing early ripening and falls from wind damage and squirrels. The sycamores growing alongside the road at Sandhills, Shire Oak are heavy with their unique spinning seeds, and the beeches have already shed a few nuts. I’m already collecting these, as I do every autumn, for spreading on wasteland and hedgerows as I cycle. More about my guerilla planting later in the season…

August 17th – It was very grey and spotting with rain as the heavy wind blew me back up Shire Oak Hill later in the day. Oddly, the gates to Shire Oak Landfill – the former quarry at Sandhills – had been left open, and I took the opportunity to have a play with the zoom mode on the camera. The view from this spot is always great, although hard to capture in photos, but despite the grey murk of the day, the images weren’t too bad. Springhill, Hammerwich, Wall and Lichfield were all clearly visible. 

August 13th – Out at sunrise and off to Redditch for the first time in a while. Coasting the top of Shire Oak Hill, I noticed the sunrise was looking good from the landfill entrance on the Chester Road. This time of year, the sunrises are usually excellent. Shame the same can’t be said for the weather at the moment – after a few days of warm, welcome summer, it’s back to overcast skies and drizzle. The day turned grey and wet by lunchtime…

July 24th – It’s actually quite hard to get a good view from the top of Shire Oak Hill. All the best vistas are occluded, either by trees or houses. This one, however, isn’t too shabby. From the Chester Road entrance of the Shire Oak Quarry/Landfill, one can get respectable zoom shots on a clear day. Clicking on the above image to zoom will show that this was a very clear, haze-free evening, despite the low wind level. In the middleground is Lichfield Cathedral, the Old Lady of the Vale. Beyond and to her left, the huge silo of the Coors (formerly Bass) brewery in Burton can clearly be seen. To the right, the great hill of Swadlincote and Repton, and beyond, the disused cooling towers of Derbyshire’s otherwise demolished Willington Power Station. That’s a fine view.

July 10th – This is a terrible photo, but illustrates something that always comes as a shock. The first vanguard of the fruiting season are the formation of haws on the hawthorn hedges and thickets. These hard, bitter berries will take the rest of the summer to ripen, before being eaten by the birds over winter. The sight of these fruits swelling and turning crimson is a harbinger of autumn to me, and a sign of the seasons’s passage. Together with the rain, this did not make for a terribly uplifting ride home…