April 3rd – What a cracking sunset. A so very unexpected. Retuning home at half seven in the evening, the rain had stopped, the sky was clearing, and a weak sun lit the whole thing up. It cheered me as I cycled home from Shenstone. Unexpected pleasures. What a sky!
March 31st – Just off Gravelly Lane in Stonnall, an unnamed track runs behind Stonnallhouse Farm to Lower Stonnall. In this lovely, bucolic spot, some scumbag has dumped a couple of of sofas and some unwanted building materials, right beside an anti-flytipping sign. Did you pay some nomark to get rid of your trash? Man with a van a little to cheap and handy? Or did some member of your family not bother with the niceties of the tip?
Whoever it was, they’re scum. I hope their balls drop off.
March 30th – As I came back up over Aldershawe that afternoon I was exhausted. The week had been emotionally, physically and mentally enervating, and I felt flat, tired and weak. There had been a chord-change in the weather, too; it was chillier, a little overcast and there was a real bastard of a headwind. It probably wasn’t that fierce, but on top of everything, it just felt like another battle I didn’t need. At Cranebrook Lane, not far from Muckley Corner, I stopped for a snack and a drink, and remembered this sad little stub of a road. Before the great folly of the M6 toll, this used to be Bullmoor Lane; to save building another bridge, the road engineers instead diverted the sleepy back lane southwest, to meet Cranebrook Lane on the south side of it’s own flyover. I loved the bit of Bullmoor lane that was lost; it was a little hilly, had a good view to Shenstone, and I spent hours exploring here as a lad. When they cut it off, a piece of me, just a tiny bit, died. The lost lane is now just a gated farm track. 35 years ago, you may well have found an exhausted lad here. He’d dig for sweets or an apple in his saddlebag on his well-loved Peugeot bike, before heading off into the wind like I was about to. It seems as distant now as my first day at school. The watering eye must have been the wind.
March 22nd – Any entomologists in the house? On a fence-post near Stonnall. Three different genus of the same species (if that’s the right way to put it). I know they’re all ladybirds, but which is which? Is any one of them the nasty, invasive ones I’ve been hearing about? Help gratefully recieved.
March 5th – I returned early for a change, but absent mindedly got on the wrong train at New Street. I had intended to catch a Walsall service, and come home with the wind more of less behind me, but stuck on autopilot I got on a Lichfield train instead, hopping off at Blake Street. Battling an evil headwind all the way back, it was otherwise a lovely afternoon, with bright blue skies, fluffy white clouds and a certain emerald hue coming into the countryside around Stonnall. I noticed clumps of early daffodils, particularly along Mill Lane near Ivy House Farm, and the views were clear and lovely. Spring, I’m ready for you now.
February 21st – It seems I’ve got a change of scenery for a few days. Off to Telford early today, and the weather – after a distinctly wintery dip yesterday – seemed really springlike this morning. Heading to Shenstone station along Lynn Lane, I noticed this row of bare trees. Spring will be nearly over by the time they green up, but I’m sure, somewhere in those weathered trunks, sap has started to rise. I notice bulbs are coming up and growth is tentatively commencing for another year. This thought cheered me as I sat on the train…
February 11th – The best bit about February is the lengthening day, which gives way in clear times to fantastic sunset skies. These are a regular feature at this time of year, but tend to become rarer as spring arrives. These shots, taken from the foot of Lazy Hill on the Chester Road, near Stonnall, were taken at 5:30pm. Already, the nights are opening out. I can’t quite feel the stirrings of spring yet, but oh for the light nights, daffodils and green shoots again. Bring it on.
February 3rd – Cycling home from Shenstone the sunset was beautiful. Looking over the fields towards Stonnall and Little Aston I loved the drama and march of the pylons against the sky. Five to the mile, to me they’re beautiful and a wonderfully minimalist design. Today, they hummed and crackled in the frosty air. Electricity is the closest thing to magic humans possess. I’m transfixed by it.
January 6th – It felt good to be back on the bike. They afternoon was so pleasant, it felt like the storm was over both inside me and outside. The journey from Stonnall to just outside Lichfield via Hilton, Chesterfield and Wall was excellent.
The track is ‘Somewhere Nicer’ by Obi. It’s just how I felt. It’s great to be back.
January 6th – I feel one hell of a lot better. The stomach is settling, my sense of taste has returned and I’ve got itchy feet. I solved the latter problem yesterday by saddling up my favourite bike and heading down the back lanes to Lichfield. It was an experiment – still not eating a huge amount, I kept an eye on the energy and took it easy. I needn’t have worried. It was like a spring day. These lanes are old familiars, yet cycling and fresh air was new to me again. I dawdled. I stopped to look. I enjoyed the feel of the afternoon chill. I went to Lichfield, sat in a cafe, drank good tea and ate toasted tea cakes, then cycled home, including Shire Oak Hill without stopping. I slept well, but it’s a start.
I feel better.
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