Tag: summer

May 30th – There was something of the smug git about me when I arrived home. I sat on the train, watching the rain pound down on north Birmingham and Sutton. Station after station, wet commuters got on or off the train. Resigned to my fate, I hopped off at Shenstone, to find the rain had stopped. The sun was trying to come out. The sky was still threatening, so I sped home, enjoying the sun, and wondering if the spots I felt on my legs were road spray or rain starting again. Completely against the odds I arrived home dry and warm.

Life doesn’t usually reward me like this. Further down the line I’ll pay, I just know it…

May 30th – That false sense of security. Today, I headed to Telford in light, summer clothes. It was a lovely, sunny morning and the riding was good, but late into the afternoon, the skies darkened. Although the BBC internet forecast didn’t predict rain, it looked like we we in for a storm.

I cycled to the station at my normal time – and it started to rain as the train pulled out. When I arrived at New Street, the rain storm was torrential. Water issued up from platform drains and the overheads crackled ominously. I was going to get drowned. I started to root in the saddlebag to check for aqua pacs for my electronic gadgets…

May 25th – Nipping down to the chip shop in Stonnall for a Friday treat, I took a loot at the early summer view towards Lichfield from Shire Oak. Beautiful as ever, the change in foliage and colours perfectly complimenting the elegant spires of the Old Lady of the Vale. I adore this view, and could study it for hours on end.

May 23rd – You guys are going to get so fed up of my summer pictures, but frankly, I don’t care. It’s gorgeous out there, and despite my hay fever, I’m loving every minute. Returning from Tyseley yesterday evening, the back lanes of Stonnall and little Aston were warm and full of summer. Birds flitted in and out of the hedgerows, rabbits dwelled on verges and in the shade of hedges. Fair weather cyclists were out in force. This is the season I live for, and it’s finally here. Get out and enjoy it, it’s gorgeous out there.

May 22nd – Summer is really on her throne now, I think. Returning home that evening, I came from Blake Street through a green, hazy wonderland. The oilseed rape is still bright yellow, the hedges and copses dusted with white blooms of cow parsley and hawthorn blossom. The air is heavy with pollen, bee buzz and insects. Near lower Stonnall, the first hay crop has been cut. It’s left to dry in the fields, then turned and dried some more before baling. It’s been a long time coming but this is just wonderful.

May 9th – It was still summer when I came home – but it was a typical English summer, in that it was raining. But it was a soft rain, the kind of gentle, warm rain you get when the air is still. A vague haze sat over the countryside, and everything smelt of growth and pollen. I actually enjoyed being out in this, it was refreshing and sweet. The roads were quiet and I enjoyed gliding through the wet, glistening, growing countryside. 

In Shenstone, St. Johns Hill was back to being the green canopied tunnel it normally becomes in high summer, and at the Footherley Brook, I understood just how far things had come in a few weeks. 

May 8th – I guess we’re coming on to summer now, although the temperature and general changeability of the weather doesn’t suggest it. Emboldened by the rain, Jockey Meadows, at Walsall Wood, and the surrounding countryside is beginning to look really fresh, clean and green. I’ve always adored the cinematic landscape here. Similarly, overlooking the new pond at Clayhanger, where a whole range of deciduous trees give a spread of greens.

Sadly, tomorrow the rain looks set to return. Come on sun, please!

August 8th – It was a showery, unsettled afternoon as I returned through Lower Stonnall. Here at Mill Lane, the summer is advancing, and Autumn, sadly, didn’t seem too far away. There are already leaves littering the verges, and the harvest, here slightly behind, has paused while the wheat dries out again. Please come back summer – we haven’t got to know each other properly yet…

July 28th – It was the kind of hazy, warm, mellow evening one dreams about. Heat haze shimmered off the roads, and as I cruised down Shire Oak Hill into Brownhills I took in the the view, and reflected on how much it had changed since I was a lad. There used to be flats and maisonettes here, almost as far as the eye could see. It was never as green as it is now. We don’t realise just how verdant Brownhills is now, it’s gorgeous.