April 25th – The weather is still quite intemperate, but improving. Temperatures climbed at the weekend, then sank again, but on the whole it’s been a drier week – but windier – although the sun too has been welcome.
This improvement has meant trees are now well into the greening phase and it’s starting to look like summer is coming.
With blue skies and emerald embankments and hedgerows, the canal is looking gorgeous again.
It’s a pleasure to see.
April 3rd – The day had been beautiful, but the late afternoon was punctuated by frighteningly intense rain and hail storms, and riding back home tentatively in light drizzle, my tenacity was rewarded with one of the finest rainbows I’ve ever seen.
Wednesbury was a great place to catch it, and it was worth the soaking.
The weather doesn’t have to be good to have a beautiful day…
March 21st – Leaving my camera at home made a bad day for photos – but the day was dull anyway, so at least not much was lost.
Coming back through Brownhills, though, I noticed the sky was that gorgeous azure blue of late spring dusks, and the moon was a pleasing crescent above the still skeletal trees.
I feel certain we’ve seen the last of winter now – and I’ve probably just doomed it, but there you go – and I’m really eager for sunny, warm days.
With the clocks going forward on Sunday it seems like a real possibility and not just a distant dream now.
March 15th – I was on the canal near the new pool at Clayhanger as night fell.
The sky was impressively foreboding and conditions fairly still. I love the fluid, elastic quality to dusk at this time of year. It really is beautiful.
I love how my variably-timed evening commute changes subtly from mostly dark to mostly in the light about now; I’m already looking forward to the start of British Summer Time in a week’s time and all we need now is some clearer, finer weather.
Despite the velvet, descending dark, it feels good to be emerging into the light.
March 8th – And returning down Lynn Lane, a pretty good sunset, too.
Hard to imagine this time last week we were enduring temperatures of -6 and lower. I’ll never get bored of the British weather.
February 25th – I raced back to Chasewater to catch the sunset as I had planned to do they day before, and although inevitably the sunset was not as dramatic, it was very beautiful and calm, but my hands were frozen. It really was very cold indeed.
I noted while there that Chasewater is now about 150mm from full, as it usually is at this time of year. It will be interesting to see what happens this year – if the reservoir is allowed to continually overtop or if the dispute with the Canal and River Trust is resolved and the water is released into the canal.
February 22nd – Frustratingly, I had to pop into Birmingham on my way home, and caught the train back out, but it was gratifying to find myself cycling back from Shenstone in almost daylight, in a misty, lovely sunset.
It’s gone cold again, but this still felt quite spring-like.
February 17th – Out just as the sun went down on an errand in Burntwood, hoping to catch a decent sunset as I returned via Chasewater, and thankfully I wasn’t disappointed. The day hadn’t been great and a number of things had gone wrong for me, but this was a really uplifting thing and I was glad to witness it.
With sunsets this good, can spring be far away?
February 15th – I missed the sunset, but escaped from work on a chilly night to one of those early spring azure blue skies fringed with the last orange rays of the sun.
Even in the industrial hinterland of the Moxley-Darlaston border was gorgeous.
January 29th – Kings Hill, my workaday home.
Light is just edging into my evening commute again. I am nearing the season of the early spring sunset. Tonight, I caught the dying light on the twin sisters, and saw the Kings Hill communication tower trading it’s secrets with a glowing, clear ether.
It’s been a cold, grey, horrible month: With the shoulder injury and that awful bug, coupled with atrocious weather riding a bike has been a battle since before Christmas. But tonight, I was fluid again. Speed, like the light, is returning.
I hope this darkness has reached it’s end.
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