Tag: weather

#365daysofbiking This world of water

February 23rd – Chasewater Country Park is currently astoundingly wet. The reservoir has overtopped now and is sending a continuous deluge over the weir and down the spillway into the Crane Brook culvert.

The network of creeks and ditches across the heaths are all swamped, and pools and huge puddles are on every trail.

Even the old mine spring that normally trickles a red, rust-tinted flow of water through the marsh at the foot of the dam is flowing pure and clear through it’s gap in the trail concrete block that acts as a crossing.

This is going to take a very long, dry spell to restore to normal.

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#365daysofbiking – Snow joke


February 10th – I was at work in a windowless building. At 3:30pm I stepped out of a fire escape answering a call to find it had been snowing, but only a little. An icing sugar dusting was remaining in gutters, shady grass banks and in the shadows of trees and buildings, but disappearing fast.

I have the feeling this will be the only snow we’ll get this year.

Sad really, as I love a bit of snow cycling.

Perhaps it’s for the best, though: Spring is too important to me now I think.

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#365daysofbiking One step forward, two splashes back

January 9th – It had been drying up since Christmas, the towpaths were getting nicely rideable again.

Sadly, overnight and during the day, the rains came again.

Back to square one, I guess…

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#365daysofbiking A grim toll

November 15th – The bikes are suffering in the bad weather.

A continual spray of road water containing grit, balsam, leaf litter and road salt is getting into the brakes, frame and drivetrain. The pads and brake discs are wearing fast.

I need to get on with some TLC and show my steeds some love.

But while the bad weather persists, anything other than essential work seems like a losing battle.

It’s not just the rider that needs some dry weather….

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#365daysofbiking A rare burst of sunlight

November 13th – The day was better; better not just in the weather, but in the fact that I was back in Darlaston and not stuck in the hell of the local train service that seems lately to have staggered to a grim halt.

Victoria Park was showing well her autumn coat of many colours and was gorgeous in the late morning as I slid through it on an errand. Oh for the absence of rain, a little sun on my face and for the brightness of a dappled sky!

What has this autumn’s weather been so rotten?

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#365daysofbiking Fire in the sky

October 26th – It had been a frustrating day. I needed to get some stuff from a store on the Orbital Centre in Cannock to get started on a job, but the rain was preventing me venturing onto the A5. Finally, as twilight fell around 5pm, the rain ceased.

On the new road that runs to the back of the orbital past Kingswood, the cloud cleared for the most majestic sunset I’ve seen in a very, very long time.

In 15 minutes, it had built from nothing, peaked, and ebbed into darkness.

Proof that even the worst days can contain real, unexpected and worthwhile beauty.

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#365daysofbiking Into the darkness

October 3rd – The sunset now is getting really, really early and is quite a shock.

That was a hard, wet and punishing ride into the wind. It was hard work after the week I’ve had.

The winter lights are on, the scarf is out of the drawer and the thermals are being checked and washed.

And so, into the dark I disappear for the worst half of the year.

I hate this, but you have to have the bad with the good, so here goes…

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#365daysofbiking A passing brightness

June 26th – Sad to see the last of the orchids fading away now but it’s been a great year for them.

I think they like the rain, so the summer has been good for something, at least.

I love these gorgeous purple flowers – a real symbol of the cleanliness our canals now enjoy. Such a shame they’re so transient in nature.

Until next year, then…

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#365daysofbiking Waiting for a train

June 13th – It was drier in the morning, with ha hint, just a hint of sun when I headed to Telford. My jacket hood was down for the first time in a week. I could see where I was going.

Could this be the end of the rain for a while?

Lulled into a false sense of security, a flash shower caught me on the way back to the station.

Thankfully, by the time the train got to Wolverhampton the rain had been left behind.

Just one blessed day without rain, please? It’s not too much to ask, is it?

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#365daysofbiking A break in the clouds

June 2nd – On my return, for a short while, the sun came out and the skies were lovely over Hammerwich and the canal from Chasewater.

One of the reasons I ride a bike is the connection to my environment it gives me – good weather or bad I feel on my bike that the world continues to spin, and that for better or worse, I’m part of it.

For a few sunny minutes on a green, beautiful canal on a blustery sad Sunday, the clouds thinned and as the world continued to spin, and I felt lifted and content to be part of it.

My cyclic antidepressant had worked again.

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