August 6th – At the other end of the route, Pelsall. Dormitory, shady, leafy. Beautiful in places, but ever so slightly smug about it. This is Walsall’s Metroland.
Tag: summer
August 6th – I’d been in Darlaston, and returned home via the cycleway down the Goscote Valley. Despite small areas of tipping and litter, it’s lovely at the moment; the pastures and wastelands are bright with willow herb, wort, convulvulus and budleia, and the Ford Brook has tall swathes of Himalayan balsam growing tall. It’s an unwelcome species, but it is gorgeous to look at.
All the way through Goscote I watched two buzzards wheel and soar on the warm breeze. You wouldn’t think this area could be so peaceful and beautiful.
Walsall still has the capacity to surprise.
August 5th – It seems the harvest had started just before the rains came over the weekend. These fields near Stonnall were still full of wheat on Thursday, and are now no more than neat rows of cut straw, with crows looking for food in the gleanings. I noticed other fields had been cut at Springhill and Summerhill too.
And so the season ticks on. It doesn’t seem long since there were deep snowdrifts here..
July 29th – The summer is now moving into a new, later phase. From the growth, then the flowering, we’re now in the ripening and fruiting stage. All around, conkers, acorns and berries are visible in trees and hedgerows, still swelling and ripening. Here at Telford, the rowans that line the cycleways are turning orange slowly. Beautiful, but sad too, at the passage of summertime.
July 27th – I headed out to Burntwood to the supermarket to get some shopping in. I deliberately waited until the rain started, and cycling in it was joyous; warm, soothing, but cool and refreshing, I rejoiced in the rain running down my face and legs. Everything smelt gorgeous, and I’d forgotten how loud rain can be.
It’s not often you’re glad of rain, but I was today.
July 21st – At Farewell, the advancing season is indicated in the landscape. Fields of very nearly ripe wheat, oilseed rape and barley stretch for miles. They aren’t quite ready yet, but are not far off, and even in this misty-grey humid evening, they were beautiful.
July 15th – I snatched a ride out at 3pm, and headed for Hoar Cross. I rocketed through the countryside of Longdon, Handsacre and the Ridwares, only stopping at the old church at Pipe Ridware to take a quick couple of photos. The pretty little building is now a theatre whose latest show was only a few days ago.
I continued to Hoar Cross, and returned via the Needwood Valley,with the countryside looking gorgeous in the hazy, hot summer sun. I was hurrying a 35 mile journey and didn’t stop to take many photos, but it was a lovely, fast ride.
July 14th – I followed the track back to Ryders Mere. I hadn’t been this way for a while, and this relatively new lake – created as part of an opencast remediation 10 years ago – is maturing well. It was very quiet, with few around, and I was impressed at the number of damselflies, dragonflies and other insects there were around. The meadow was alive with grasshoppers. In the background, the gentle lap of water and calls of waterfowl.
Beautifully tranquil.
July 13th – The dog’s name is Veronica. This is the otherwise glass-calm Trent and Mersey river section at Alrewas. A fine dog on a fine day.
July 13th – It was incredibly hot, and I was tired. But at 4pm I found the energy from somewhere and headed out. I was only supposed to be going to Chasewater – but after a restorative ice cream, I found the going easy and powerful, so I headed up through Chorley and Longdon Green, to Yoxall and Barton. From Barton I took the backlanes and tracks to Wychnor, where I hopped on the canal, and rode the river section of the Trent & Mersey to Fradley, then back home through Lichfield.
It was hot, but a lovely, fast ride through gently ripening countryside. This is the summer I’ve been hoping for.
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