Tag: Stonnall

July 31st – The promised rains came, but during my commutes, they were patchy and drizzly. It was an odd day; I lost something in the morning, and found it in the afternoon on the station platform, still where I dropped it. I sweated in waterproofs. I saw the aftermath of quite a serious road accident. Sometimes, you’re glad to get home in one piece.

The rain was nice; refreshing, warm, not driven by the wind, just gentle, cleansing. I caught the waterlogged backlanes of Stonnall, and looked for the raindrops on willow herb and brambles.

Not all rain is bad.

July 30th – The ripening is noticeable everywhere. Returning from Shenstone, the fields of wheat and oilseed rape were losing their last vestiges of green; not yet ready to harvest, but well on the way. The golden colour is welcome and is like late summer’s coat; the countryside is replete in golds, beige and dark, dark green.

Also doing well, the bramble fruits – dewberry and blackberry – are turning red, and the parsnips growing at Sandhills look in fine fettle.

Doesn’t look like it was such a bad season, after all.

July 26th – It’s not often I do reader requests on 365daysofbiking, but here goes. Reader @hapdaniel asked the other day on twatter about sweetcorn being grown locally, and if it was likely. I opined that sweetcorn wasn’t, as we don’t really get enough sun for it to be produced on an agricultural scale, but lots of maize is grown, mainly for animal fodder. The two plants look pretty similar.

Sweetcorn is a genetic mutation of maize that results in an elevated sugar level, but needs lots of sun to ripen properly, and late in the season, so we don’t really get the conditions. But this field of maize on the corner of Lynne and Wallheath lanes in Stonnall is verdant, tall and healthy, and looks set to produce a good yield.

July 12th – Spinning out through Brownhills to Stonnall for tea, I crested Springhill on Barracks Lane on a languid, hot Friday evening. Even at 7pm there was little traffic, and few folk about. I noticed that a week or so of hot summer weather, and the colours of the season had changed. The bright, vivid, verdant greens have faded to more of a faded emerald jacket, and reds, golds and sandy yellows are creeping in to the landscape, colouring the fields shades of ripeness and fulfilment.

At Springhill, a field of gently ripening, plump wheat caught my eye, and at Cartersfield Lane, a healthy field of Barley.

A fine sight, but poignant too, as it indicates the seasons’ progression.

June 28th – I don’t often ride into Stonnall from Cartersfield Lane, but having hopped off the canal at Warrenhouse, then over Barracks Lane, it seemed a reasonable route. It’s actually a lovely lane, and on the outskirts of the village, I spotted this row of interesting old houses. Even in the rain, I loved the colours, textures, gables, and above all, the great chimneys!

You can know a place all your life, and still spot something fresh. That’s why cycling – even on wet, grey days – can be a joy.

May 31st – Summer finally here at last. After a week of dreadful, rain-sodden commutes, fraught with stress and delay, this was a real tonic. The rapeseed is still spreading the fluorescent yellow love, and nature rose to the occasion perfectly, with field margins and hedgerows ablaze with colour and resonating to birdsong and beebuzz.

May 29th – I had expected to get very wet on my return home. As it happened, it was merely a light drizzle, in the gap between downpours, but there was a significant headwind, and the going was grim. Cowparsley and hawthorn buds line the verges and hedgerows, and the cheesy scent of rapeseed hangs heavy. But there’s little sun about, and the lanes look grey and dull. Even the rabbit that darted in front of me, causing me to brake sharply was soaking wet.

We must be due a hot, dry spell soon, please?

May 24th – After a spin around Stonnall and Shenstone in a rather grim wind, the sunset was nice. Sweeping past hedgerows glowing with cow parsley, bluebells and fields full of oilseed rape, the sky set it all off beautifully. A lovely end to a day of awful weather.
At Sandhills, the polythene covered field has had the plastic removed, and each sheet was nurturing four rows of seedlings beneath. I don’t know what they are, they look a bit like peas. It’ll be fun to watch and see what grows.

May 24th – Out early evening, and speeding towards Stonnall, I glanced to my left as I enjoyed the downhills. Fishpond Wood is gorgeous right now. After last year’s poor bluebell showing, they’re really excellent this year – and these are true British ones, not the Spanish impostors. The light was awful, but the atmosphere great.

I asked a mate about the tin shack. He said it used to house a pump, and he thought it was something to do with the quarry once. Never noticed it before.

These woods are private property and I was trespassing, so don’t do it, kids.

May 16th – Spring is here, too, at the verges, hedgerows and field-margins. An assortment of cowslips, bluebells, ramsons, alliums and other wildflowers are all competing for attention. This selection was growing at the side of the Chester Road, in a short, 10 years stretch near Stonnall. It’s been a long time coming, but I’m loving the spring, even when it rains…