July 3rd – I passed Grove Hill near Stonnall late afternoon, under a stunning blue sky with light clouds. Currently with barley on the lower slopes and wheat on the upper, it’s a timeless sight that can’t have altered much in a century or more.
The other thing I like about this is it clearly illustrates the purpose of the hedge and lone three; they are there to limit soil erosion. Think about it.
July 1st – Has half the year gone already? Really? Wow.
I flew from Walsall with the wind behind me just after the rain passed, and with a call to make in Stonnall, I let the wind blow me on a lazy loop around Shenstone. The wet lanes glistened in the sunlight, and the sky was deep blue. With the wet June, everything is verdant ad green, except the barley, which is turning now to the gold of high summer.
As the year and seasons move inexorably on, although it’s been wet, it hasn’t felt like a bad year for the weather. Let’s hope we get a drier, sunnier July and August.
June 17th – I came through Chesterfield near Stonnall in the afternoon and the skies were very threatening, yet failed to deliver their apparently evil intent.
Equally menacing was the murder of crows, calling and chattering from the overhead lines. It was very Hitchcock.
I hurried home before the storm arrived… be it inclement weather or angry corvids.
May 29th – A day of remarkable colour and beauty. I set off in the early afternoon for a ride not really sure where I was going, but headed to Middleton Hall for fuel in the form of tea and cake before heading southeast into the wind, over to Ridge Lane via Kingsbury and on to Mancetter, a place I haven’t been for years. From there, out to Sheepy Magna, then Orton on the Hill, up to Twycross and then down Salt Street to No Mans Heath. Returning in a glorious golden hour via Clifton, Harlaston and Whittington, the sunset over the railway at Hademore was remarkable.
It was a long ride but I felt power in my legs and really, really enjoyed it.
May 12th – It was such a gorgeous evening I couldn’t resist going for a spin around the lanes of Stonnall. Everything was suffused in a gorgeous golden light, and the countryside is looking wonderfully green and mellow at the moment.
At Fighting Cocks, the dandelion meadow is just wonderful. It would be nice if this weather could stay awhile.
April 30th – So, there I’d done gone and promised to bring ny ill mate the best of summer, and it rains, and blows, and hails on a very blustery, intemperate Saturday. Just where do you find the beauty?
You slip out as the worst is passed, and get your feet gloriously wet in the local bluebell wood, and remember what it is to be alive in the outdoors, with the smell of wet earth, pollen and rising sap.
Just wish the light wasn’t so poor.
April 22nd – An electrical mystery I really have no clue about. An overhead three-phase line runs across the Carterfield Lane junction at the bottom of Sandhills, Shire Oak, supplying farms and homes with electricity. Recently, secondary poles have been installed at seemingly random intervals, actually between the conductors, and a little higher then them, whit a protruding object from the top.
The tops of the poles are sheathed in plastic, and they support nothing.
The only thing I can think is they’re lightning conductors. Does anyone know what they are for? Installing them between the lines like that must have been a very tricky job.
A real head-scratcher.
April 1st – it’s fitting to note that today, April 1st 2016, April Fools Day is the 5th anniversary of this journal. Apart from the two infamous days of food poisoning over New Year 2011/12 when I was slain by a rogue pie, I have ridden every day, rain, sun, snow or shine. Every day I’ve got on my bike and gone somewhere – for a ride for pleasure, on errands, to work. That’s 1825 days of cycling, and 4 years and 3 months of that on every single consecutive day.
I must be mad. Or really love cycling. One of the two. Or both.
Today, I found myself riding through Stonnall, and noticed the lovely daffodils around the village bus stop. Wonder what the bunting around the shelter is for?
Thanks for being with me and riding along. If you’re sick of it and think I should stop, or want to shout encouragement, feel free. I’ve really enjoyed the past five years.
February 19th – Down in Stonnall on an errand, I noted the pubs of the village, the Royal Oak and Old Swan both seem to be doing well now. Both have been closed previously, with questions over their future, but both with new landlords, they both seem to be doing well now, despite being barely 150 yards apart.
January 15th – First really cold day of the year, with the lightest, cutest dusting of snow that sat on the landscape like icing sugar. Not yet having fitted the ice tyres, I let some air out and rode the heaviest bike I have. It was gorgeous; the temperature didn’t get above freezing all day, and I got cold and hungry, but it was worth being out in. It was good to be off work but it was also good to be out in the glass-hard, clear day. Stonnall, Wall and Hammerwich positively glowed in the cold winter sunshine.
I’ve needed this for so long.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 