Tag: water

January 1st – Something odd has happened and I haven’t really register why. 

As I passed the canal overflow at CLayhanger Bridge in the darkness, I noticed it was very noisy indeed, and that the canal was really full and overtopping considerably. 

I find this puzzling – we’ve had a fair bit of rain, but not that much, surely? Or have I missed it all?

When the overflow is running at full blast it’s a lovely noise and a fascinating thing, almost hypnotic to watch.

I just can’t see where all the water’s come from…

October 29th – A real wet feet moment up on the old Ironstone Road at Bleak House. Time makes you forget where the deep standing water is. 

Note the scraping afterwards – thats wet grit in the brakes – the sound of wearing components!

(Source: https://player.vimeo.com/)

July 30th – The weather was sunny with squally, heavy showers and due to domestic complications I didn’t get out until late in the afternoon. When I did, I didn’t have a great deal of energy and the wind was a bit fierce so I took a leisurely bible to Chasewater and the surrounding area for a few hours.

With the bad weather it was very quiet, and also a splendid day for chasing rainbows.

I note the harvest is underway at Home Farm, Sandhills; that the birds foot trefoil has been rejuvenated by the recent rain; that the little pond right by the Burntwood bypass is absolutely teeming with busy water snails and that cows are roaming the north heath as well as the spillway area. 

It was a very dramatic day with some lovely sights but I do wish the settled weather would return for a bit.

July 15th – Another joy of warm summer rides is the overspray from crop sprinklers. Often placed – sometimes I wonder if somewhat mischievously – so they spray into adjoining lanes, cycling through the cold mist is a delight.

Sometimes, it you can’t get caught by one directly, standing downwind can be just as rewarding.

Or maybe, just maybe, if the sun is shining, you can catch a perfect little rainbow…

June 7th – After seeing the rhizomes floating in the canal earlier in the season, it’s gratifying to note that the development of this season’s water lilies has been sift – and a matter of a couple of week the characteristic large, leathery leaves have formed, and now the first tentative flowers were out as I rode to work along the canal at Bentley Bridge.

Two listing species are common on local canals – yellow and white, and both are gorgeous. A lovely sight.

May 3rd – Nice to see the herons out and about again. They went a little scarce over the winter and I was concerned we were losing them, but as the spring settled in I started seeing more of these dishevelled, mad looking fishers.

This one, on the canal bank between two scrapyards at Darlaston, was large and healthy-looking and regarded me with interest as I stopped to photograph it.

I love these remarkable and beautiful birds.

March 23rd – A mystery that’s been puzzling me for a long time has been solved.

This time of year, I always note floating roots in the canal, often sprouting foliage. I had thought they were the way reedmace spreads, but discovered this was incorrect last year, so they remained a mystery.

Thanks to someone I work with (thanks, Dagmar) I now know these are the way a water plant spreads, but not rushes or reeds, but water lilies.

These roots are water lily rhizomes, from which the clumps of the delightful summer flowers spout. I never realised that under the water, they were linked in clumps.

Isn’t nature wonderful?

February 26th – The water level at Chasewater is lower than I’ve seen it for a while. Interestingly, rather than open the valves fully, there’s a good flow into the canal, and the balancing culvert between the Nine-Foot pool and Spillway has been opened, allowing a steady stream of water to flow into the Crane Brook via the drain system under the canal.

I understand why the level is being dropped – with the dam being permeable, if installing drains you want the installation to be as dry as possible – but I’m puzzled by the method. It has, however, been convention since the original dam works to allow the reservoir to overflow every spring, so perhaps this is to irrigate the spillway marsh as it would be normally.

Interesting too to see the white scale around the lowered waterline. It that salt, or something else?

January 20th – I was home earlier, but didn’t escape the dark. It was light when I left though, which was something. On the way back I had to call in to Stonnall on an errand, and I came upon a hazard every bit as dangerous as the unexpected black ice that morning; in the blackness of the backlane, the road was flooded to some depth for the full width of the tarmac.

In my bike light, I took the best picture I could, and note that apart from the bike light, this is in total black; a mix of speed and grip-thieving water, marbles and mud just ready to strike out of the darkness.

Thankfully, I spotted it,. But be careful out there. I’h hate to think what this is like if it freezes…

January 7th – I love inversions, when mist rolls off water low into the air. I don’t see many these days, and certainly none as dramatic as those from my childhood, but the character of the area has changed so much in 40 years that I shouldn’t be surprised, really.

I was out after dark and noticed fleeting, transitory clouds of mist forming over the canal at Silver Street, intensifying, then disappearing. It was stunning.

I tried to photograph them as best I could, but this is really something you have to see first hand…