December 6th – Still cold, and again, a foggy, treacherous ride: I was at Telford early, and the cycleways were wet and dripping with water. The temperature was clearly rising and everything, every surface was saturated, including me.
I really hope this grim spell ends soon.
November 21st – I’ve not known a day’s weather so consistently, unrelentingly bad for a long, long time. It rained continuously from before I awoke, through my 7am commute, right up until around 6pm.
Riding to work was a battle. Despite waterproofs, a ride rendered 50 minutes rather than the usual 35-40 left me wet in places. I was miserable, cold and grumpy.
In Darlaston at teatime, the rain slowed, so I made a bolt for it. Mostly, the rain held back during my journey home, on flooded, waterlogged roads through a glistening, dripping, wet and cold town.
Drivers were behaving in that terrifyingly single minded, selfish way they always do in bad weather; either travelling at ridiculously inappropriate speeds, or crawling. The spray was penetrating.
Thankfully, by the time I reached the Coppice Road junction on the Brownhills/Walsall Wood border, there was little traffic around.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to get home, have a shower, and a mug of tea. I so hope tomorrow is better.
November 16th – Not sure what this large fungus actually is, but it was handsome and glistening with collected dew and rainwater as I passed through Victoria Park in Darlaston in the early morning.
To my sadness, the fungi haven’t been terribly prolific this year – some did explode into life late, like the fly agaric, but this year I’ve hardly seen any puffballs, very few shaggy ink caps and the brackets seem well down too.
I do hope the unusually dry autumn hasn’t scuppered chances of seeing rosy earthstars at Clayhanger again…
August 28th – Staunton Harold is a beautiful reservoir, created in 1966 to supply water for the growing conurbations of Derby and Leicester. Unlike its partner Foremark which is a creation of the 1970s, Staunton is more secluded and in rolling countryside – and the construction is architecturally more engaging with a surprisingly ornate pump head.
From the south, one can descend the steep banks to a secret-seeming beach shore, which gorgeous views of the lake; from the north, a nice visitors centre with playground and other facilities overlooks the water from a high position. In-between, the impressive dam.
I hadn’t been here for a very long time. I forgot how lovely it was. I must come back soon.
August 20th – A very tired day in which I felt groggy, tired and insubstantial, like I was a ghost or something. I didn’t realise at the time, but I think I was experiencing low sugar levels.
I set out late to the supermarket in Burntwood on a punishingly windy day, and got caught in a rain squall on the way back that made my forehead so cold it hurt. But there was a rainbow, too, which didn’t photograph well, but made me feel better.
Passing through Chasewater, I note the valves are still open and the water level is steadily dropping, now about 12 inches from maximum.
I love the tide marks on the spillway weir.
July 16th – This curious flower was found in the reed bed at the edge of the canal at Newtown, near the Castings factory. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and it seemed to exist in isolation.
It turns out it’s a common reed: branched bur-reed, and the flowers – little spiky gloves about the diameter of your fingernail – are remarkable. It’s an apparently common canal plant, so I must have seen loads of it and never realised.
I really should open my eyes more!
July 10th – The wind was still dreadful, and the skies were dark as I left the house mid afternoon. I again had stuff to do in Burntwood, so cut through Chasewater, which is still, despite the valves being open, only an inch or so off full.
The water level of the lake directly impacts Fly Pool and the creek that runs through it, and the boardwalk constructed over the creek itself shows a slight design fault at times of high water level.
Oh dear – but it does look wonderfully dramatic.
June 27th – One of the most notable changes with the cleaning up of the local canals since my childhood has been the explosion in water lilies and other water flowers that were unimaginable on the waterways of 40 years ago. Where once the water was polluted, filthy and lifeless soup, it’s now clear, limpid and at this time of year, covered in the pinks, ivories and yellows of various lilies and flag irises.
These flowers were near Clayhanger Bridge.
June 25th – Swans are inscrutable, they really are. On the Nine-Foot Pool at Chasewater, with the level still just about overflowing, a pair of birds sleep on the concrete spillway weir, seemingly oblivious to the natural plant detritus around them.
To me, the spot they doze in looks uncomfortable, chilly and precarious, but to them, it’s clearly just the right place to get some shut-eye.
Occasionally, I realise how much I don’t know about wildlife.
June 14th Every year, a couple of weeks after the yellow water lilies flower, out come the white ones, and this year there’s a fine display at Bentley Bridge.
Caught just after a rain shower, these looked splendid scattered with raindrops.
they always look so perfect, they could almost be made of wax.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 