April 12th – And of course, the flowers continued to captivate me. Magnolia, various blossom, primroses, forget me nots, pieris (is that a flower? Don’t know) and green alkanet all entertained and gave me solace in this most unusual of rides.
You can stick the coronavirus where the sun really doesn’t shine but I can handle countryside to myself like this for as long as possible, please!
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April 10th – Another working from home day – indeed, it was Good Friday, so I took off for an exercise ride at teatime. The lanes and tracks of Stonnall, Shenstone, Raikes and Hilton were warm and quiet. I saw the odd fellow cyclist, or runner. But mostly it was just me, the birds and the flowers.
The stunning yellow archangel is looking gorgeous at Footherley again this year – a relative of the nettle, I hadn’t noticed it for years, and then it seemed I couldn’t stop spotting it in places where I must have seen it before, but never noticed it.
The grape hyacinths – muscari – are also like little shocks of blue in the hedgerows and gardens I slid past.
We may be locked down, but the riding is surprisingly good at the moment.
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March 22nd – A headache grey day with little to commend it saw me persevere with a ride around Stonnall. It was gusty and unpleasant and I didn’t enjoy it.
With the current situation on my mind I felt spare and lost.
Some days, you just leave, ride the grey lanes, and come home. And that’s all you can ask for.
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March 15th – It feels like Narnia’s winter melting. We didn’t have the cold, but we had the grey and endless, endless rain: But at Springhill, some youngsters put on a performance for me that chased the winter away.
These are the true stars of spring, and how welcome they are.
Gorgeous.
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March 15th – The first real ride out for the hell of it in a few weeks proved to be a real tonic. Not far: Just up over to Walsall Wood, Lazy Hill then around the lanes of Lower Stonnall, Hilton and Warrenhouse, but a delight all the same.
I hadn’t been in these lanes for the devil of it for so long. It felt like coming home – and the flowers, views and rain-sodden landscape made me feel at once refreshed and home again.
Whatever happens in coming months, I’ll always have this, my spiritual home.
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October 31st – Nice to see so many little groups of kids and adults out trick or treating this Halloween. I’m not entirely in love with the US import, but it does seem popular and anything that gets kids out and about is fine by me.
Sadly this year not so many houses seemed to be decorated for the newly-rejuvenated festival.
There were, however, some great examples like this decorated house at Cartersfield Lane near Stonnall.
It really was lovely in the dark…
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October 28th – The descent into winter seems quite fast now: Heading off to get the train to Brum and onward to Telford on an early morning with frost on the ground and ice on the roads – and I’ve not got the winter tyres on yet, as the bike reminded me in an unguarded moment.
Stability restored, the sunlight streamed through the trees of Mill Green and despite the chill, rendered the day precious.
As welcomes to winter go, that wasn’t so bad.
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October 25th – I seemed to have been cycling on water all day – the rain barely abated until evening. Returning from an errand in Stonnall, I stopped at Shire Oak to record conditions.
It had been raining all day. Everything was sodden. The forecast for the weekend didn’t look much better. We seem to have had a wet autumn (I’m not sure if we actually have or not, to be fair).
After a few good, dry days it wouldn’t be too much to ask for a few more, would it?
Ah well, down the hatch. I wiped the rain off my face, got back on the bike and coasted back home into Brownhills, listing to the hiss of my wheels on the wet tarmac.
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September 12h – Also on my way back from Shenstone, at the bottom of Main Street in Stonnall, a different type of chestnut is absolutely profuse this year.
Sweet chestnuts in their spiny shells don’t really grow edible fruit in this country due to the climate, but they are beautiful ornamental trees with their shiny leaves and fascinating, almost prehistoric looking fruit.
This tree is always impressive.
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August 2nd – One of the more surprising developments happening locally at the moment is the new care home being built on the Chester Road at Stonnall, on the site of a former concrete block factory and quarry.
The home – which is a large, impressive and has the appearance of being very well built has risen over winter and the preceding spring and seems to be nearing completion.
This doesn’t look to be your average granny farm, but rather a specialist care facility for older folk with particular challenging needs and I think it’s the kind of thing that is needed here with our raging population – and the jobs it provides will be welcome, too.
Part of the development includes road safety improvements here on the Chester Road, which is good to see.
I wish the proprietors and future residents well in this new venture.
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