Tag: summer

July 1st – One bonus of the huge amount of rain has been the refilling of Chasewater. Steadily, almost imperceptibly, the water has gradually crept up. Now, it’s inches from the foot of the dam in one spot. The little pools – so long a characteristic of the stricken reservoir – have now mostly joined the main lake again. A wonderful sight. Nice to see the toe of the old pier in the water at last, too.

According to Graham Evans of Chasewater Wildlife Group, the water is currently at the levels it was in 1976. After a winter of almost constant rain, it was full by summer, 1977… yet, I can’t see that being the case here, somehow. I was hoping for a little summer…

June 30th – The sky was grey and rain showers stalked me as I headed out for a spin around Chasewater before tea. There was rain in the distance, over towards Lichfield, but it hadn’t got here yet. Instead, in mingled with shafts of distant sunlight and formed fragments of a rainbow. Never a whole one, the weather just teased me with pieces. The bad weather is so mean this year – it won’t even be beautiful while it’s being grim.

June 29th – It must be high summer , as the water lilies are in bloom on the local canals.These were near the Black Cock Bridge, in Walsall Wood. I don’t know if this is an invasive species or just a resurgent resident one, but they’re very lovely. We never used to see them when I was a kid, as the canals were too filthy to support much apart from sticklebacks and algae. The yellow variety – there’s a white lily too, which is also extraordinary – is fascinating to study. The flower heads are very complex. I’m quite fascinated by them.

June 28th – Travelling home after a day of incredible weather. We had torrential rain, some of the worst I’ve ever seen, thunder and lightning… but within an hour, it was sunny again and the Midlands was left to clean up after flash floods. I had to go to Tyseley that afternoon, and returned to Blake Street, near Sutton. The trains weren’t running any further, due to the line being flooded, and here, at Wood Lane, between Shenstone and Footherley, the lanes were flooded too. Note the lady driver taking no prisoners. I just hope the air intake on her engine isn’t low down…

The music is ‘Born in a Storm’ by Deacon Blue.

June 28th – An odd day with freak weather. I left for work in Darlaston early, and it was warm and quite sunny. At work for a couple of hours, the sky blackened and a real storm developed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it rain so hard in the UK. Rivers flowed through the streets, causing flooding and chaos. Then, it ended almost as quickly as it started, and we returned to a nice, sunny day. In the afternoon, I had to go to Tyseley, and due to flooding, the trains were seriously disrupted. Arriving on time due to a freak of happenstance, I left late in the afternoon to find serious delays. I rode back to Birmingham through Small Heath, and got a train back to Blake Street. Traversing the back lanes of Stonnall and Little Aston was an interesting and somewhat wet experience.

June 26th – Returning home from work, I hopped on the canal. Everything is so green right now – the weather may be generally awful but the plants are having a ball. Overlooking the new pond at Clayhanger, its character has changed again for high summer, should it deign to arrive. The sandy pool is now surrounded by a lush meadow, verdant reed beds and gorgeous, shady trees. A joy. To think a spoil heap once stood here…

June 25th – This handsome, slightly mad-looking and somewhat tame fellow was fishing near Pleck in Walsall when I returned late afternoon. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, and the canal looked great. Everything was so green and lush… and there he stood, amongst it all. He’s clearly used to people and didn’t move until I was 10 feet away from him. A gorgeous bird.

June 20th – Readers seem to be enjoying the wildflower theme of late, so today I decided to continue with it. Ragwort gets a bad press, somewhat unfairly. A member of the daisy family, it’s host to a number of butterfly, moth and insect species. Yes, it’s toxic to horses, but both have co-exesited for many centuries, and modern scares about horse deaths appear to be wildly overstated. Ragwort is a very hardy, tough plant with beautiful yellow flowers, The buds are particular works of organic engineering, too. Sadly, all too often overlooked for less common specimens, it brings a dash of colour to field, scrub and verge throughout summer. These lovely examples were growing on a patch of scrub by the M54 embankment in Telford.

June 19th – cycling back from Blake Street station, I took a spin up through the backlanes of Litte Aston and Stonnall. There seems to be a bit of a wildflower theme going on at th moment, and when I spotted this patch of poppies growing in a ripening oilseed rape field at Little Aston Forge,I just had to take a picture. In the distance is Shenstone. A lovely view.

June 4th – The weather was spectacular, and Chasewater and it’s surrounds looked beautiful. The sun gradually emerged through the afternoon and the day got brighter. The flowers are gorgeous right now, and everything is just so green. After a frankly grim weekend, it’s easy to forget how lovely everything becomes after a few minutes of sunshine…