Tag: tumblr

#365daysofbiking Getting better every day

January 2nd – Back on the 21st December my heart was lifted, as it always its, by the thought that we’d had the shortest day of the year, and that now the sunset would get later and later and the night and darkness would retreat for another year.

Well, not two weeks later, and the sunset is already 10 minutes later than it was on that day.

Ten minutes may not seem much, but it’s significant. Although the timetable to which the day lengthens is fixed, the rapidity of the change is always impressive to me and the retreat of night, being loosely sinusoidal, accelerates as we escape winter.

That six hundred seconds of gleaned light mean that on a clear day, it’s not really dark until well after 4:30pm. Soon light will leak into my evening commutes, and all will be well again.

I so hate the darkness.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2sa3Qeo
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Time is


January 2nd – I’ll start this with a note about this journal. Older readers will know I started this journal on 1st April 2011after being encouraged to do 30daysofbiking by ace cyclist and top Dutchperson Renee Van Baar. From the moment I agreed, the die was cast.

Sadly, I was very ill with food poisoning the following New Year,  so never rode a bike on 31st December 2011, and 1st January 2012. But I steeled my resolve, and I carried on, and I never missed a day since. Every day from 2nd January 2012 I have got on a bike and ridden somewhere.

From 100 mile plus rides in one day, to trundles to the shops, I have recorded my daily life as a cyclist, in all its ups and downs. That’s 7 years, or 2557 successive days (including 2 leap years), and about 63,000 miles.

I adore keeping this journal – both writing it, and creating the photos.I welcome feedback. If you have something to say – that I should stop, continue or do something differently, please get in touch by commenting or mailing me – BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.

Today was my first day back at work and on my way back, I headed up the canal to Newtown. I had forgotten to charge my camera, and it was flat, so these are actually photos from an iPhone, which just shows how much phone camera technology has advanced.

When I started this journal in 2011, my phone would not have been remotely capable of images of this quality.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2QokK2C
via IFTTT

##365daysofbiking Cold return

January 1st – The ride was continued through beautiful soft half light up to Brocton Field, down into Sherbrook Valley, then over the hill and down Pepper Slide to Abrahams Valley, returning down the A51 to Rugeley then home over Longdon, Stoneywell and Hammerwich.

The Chase was as beautifully cinematic as ever, and filled with hardy souls in new anoraks enjoying the outdoors, many with stoical expressions.

A good sunset, then the beauty of Rugeley from the main road was a real restorative. It was so cold, but I didn’t care: It was just great to be in my beloved Staffordshire outdoors again.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2BXHTUh
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Romancing the stone

January 1st – So me and a companion went looking for something, for another local historian. And we found it!

Old pal and top history writer Kate ‘Cardigan’ Gomez had written a post, published a couple of days before, about a mysterious ‘wishing stone’ up at Pye Green, on Cannock Chase (click here for that).

Since I was finally out of house arrest, we saddled up and went to look.

I won’t detail where it is exactly so it can still be fun to find, but if you know the area the pictures speak for themselves.

The journey was made even better by the remarkable sunburst seen over Huntington.

Cheers to Kate for the inspiration for a great ride! It’s good to be back in the saddle properly…

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2AtWVBz
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Hunkered down

 

 

December 31st – I’m so not a fan of New Year’s Eve. The forced jollity, camaraderie and excuse for overindulgence just depresses me, so I tend to sit it out at home, until the madness passes.

Today, I slipped out after dark for a windy, cold spin to Chasewater, which was peaceful but resounding to the call of thousands of unseen, roosting gulls.

The M6 Toll was beautiful in it’s eerie emptiness too.

Happy new year everyone, here’s to a better 2019 and I wish you all the best – and thanks for following along.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2Su4dw4
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Looking after the steed

 

December 31st – In Lichfield briefly, I noticed this little piece of pride and joy, locked outside the new library and later, near the Garrick.

That’s clearly a very much loved Christmas present and it’s good to see the parents getting the wee cyclist into the security habit.

This little blue, green and yellow steed could be the beginning of a lifelong love affair, like my first ‘real’ bike was. Cracking stuff, and a joy to the heart.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2Ap5WeY
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Convergance

December 30th – The long exposure experiments continue, this one from the cycle and equestrian bridge over the A38 between Weeford and Little Hay.

The hope was to catch a vehicle turning off to Little Hay to the right, but time ran out.

A good excuse to return for another go. I’ve missed being out so much.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2SxCMkX
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Village lights

December 30th – A spin out at dusk to Lichfield and beyond was lovely. Although I’d vowed (and promised) to rest I was going stir crazy and the chin fever was mounting. I had to get out.

The late afternoon spin – out to Lichfield, then Whittington, down the canal to Hopwas and back up the old A5 to Weeford and then through Shenstone.

The villages of Whittington and Shenstone were glorious and pretty in the descending night. A real joy to the heart.

For anyone planning to ride between Hademore and Hopwas on the canal – beware. The towpath, which is just packed earth and unsurfaced – is clearly being used for a horse gallop and is very hard going on a bike. Beware – it’s muddy.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2At59d3
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking And then…

December 29th – Also a view from a bridge, but a very underrated one; Down the Lichfield Road toward Walsall, in the same sleepwalk half-light. Busier looking, even when not; the mixture of traffic, streetlights, factory floodlights and sky is magical and it’s a joy to view.

One of the best bits of going up The Wood…

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.
from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2BSMdnM
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Bridge to my heart

#365daysifbiking Bridge to my heart:

December 29th – Still busy doing other things (bike maintenance, mainly) I had to nip up Walsall Wood to Screwfix in that magical interregnum between the sun setting and it not being fully dark.

Bullings Heath on the flank of thelack Cock Bridge looked superb, as did Hollanders Bridge.

I love the quiet, sleepy feel of the days between Christmas and new year; like the world world is snoozing off its lunch.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2QUFDre
via IFTTT