Tag: weather

July 11th – I haven’t seen much of Old Sam, the King of kings Hill lately. He had taken to sleeping on the grass in in the gardens around the old folks flats where he lives, but the gardeners came one day with their mowers and blowers and I only saw him a couple of times after that.

I needn’t have worried. He’s found a shadier spot, just out of my normal sight for the really hot days.

I notice someone had given him a bowl of water, and he was concentrating on washing, and despite my calls and invitations for strokes he studiously ignored me and got on with the important business of fur maintenance.

I adore this crotchety old lad.

Monday 9th – One of those days when you get disheartened as you took some great images but didn’t realise until late that there was a smudge on the camera lens that ruined them all…

After realising and wielding the lens pen, coming back from Lichfield late in the evening as I came up Shire Oak Hill the sunset was coming on well. This is the second time in the last few days we’ve had insteresting sun/cloud interactions, and it looked great in a gold-suffused hour.

It felt much fresher, and the building cloud is making me wonder if the weather is soon to break… but after the worst, latest spring I can ever remember, if it rains until l December now, we’ve had a terrific summer.

May 27th – A terrible day with some of the worst rainstorms I’ve ever seen. The day was muggy and uncomfortable until late afternoon, when the thunder started; rumbling, continual, low and then a rainstorm of such ferocity local homes were flooded, roads were blocked into the night by flash floods and an elderly gentleman lost his life in Walsall when his car entered deep floodwater.

The skies cleared in the early evening and I set out to explore, and found that the lower meadow at Clayhanger Common, designed as a flood containment bund to save the village was filling from the swamped Canal overflow faster than I’ve ever seen it.

Fearful storms and damage on a really, really bad day.

May 7th – The third day of a long weekend, May Day bank holiday, and I knew what to do. The forecast was for a beautiful, hot day so I hopped on a very early train to Macclesfield, and rode back via the Moorlands, Roaches, Morridge and Weaver Hills.

You can see a full gallery from this ride on my main blog here.

Just on the moors near Thorncliffe, I found this curiosity, something I’ve never seen before – a UK Meteorological Office remote weather station. I have no idea why it’s here specifically, or for the oblique angle it subtends to the road, but it is fascinating, populated with a host of instruments measuring rainfall, win speed, polled count, air quality and other metrics of the atmosphere. All this seems to be remotely operated by telemetry link.

Also in the compound is a GNRR sensor for the Ordnance Survey, a Leica device to provide calibration for GPS signals.

A fascinating and slightly haunting thing, right in the middle of nowhere.

April 25th – The weather is still quite intemperate, but improving. Temperatures climbed at the weekend, then sank again, but on the whole it’s been a drier week – but windier – although the sun too has been welcome.

This improvement has meant trees are now well into the greening phase and it’s starting to look like summer is coming.

With blue skies and emerald embankments and hedgerows, the canal is looking gorgeous again.

It’s a pleasure to see.

April 10th – My respect and thanks are due to Walsall Council, who in very short time indeed have assessed the weather decay of parts of Green Lane between Walsalll Wood and Shelfield, and resurfaced completely a couple of stretches.

The bit here, resurfaced during the day  whilst I was at work, was bloody awful on a bike. It’s way better now.

Thank you.

April 4th – A quick run across Kings Hill Park to B&Q reminded me that although the day was grey and damp, spring was getting on with the job anyway.

A hint of sunshine and this place will be an absolute riot of colour.

Gorgeous as it is, but some warm sun and happiness would really make this fabulous… I hope the weather gods are listening!

March 29th – On a practical level, the bad weather is taking an awful toll on the lanes. Here, near Springhill this backlane like many has a ridge of wash down mud in the centre, and the tarmac either side is fracturing into potholes and covered in loose detritus and marbles that are slippery and prone to stealing your grip.

The roads now will be in a parlous state, and without much money to repair them, I fear for the condition of minor lanes like Whittaker Lane here in years to come.

We really need to tackle this very serious road safety issue.

March 26th – My goodness I’m having trouble keeping up with this this week, apologies – have no fear, normal service will be resumed forthwith!

Spring is coming to the hedgerows, edgelands and waysides, almost in spite of the lousy weather generally. Although we’re having some good days, mostly the weather is still grey and cold, and Winter is beginning to feel like the unwanted, hated guest that will never leave. 

Nature is doing it’s very best to push winter away – the daffodils are well on the way now, with the large beds on roadsides starting to come out, and to my surprise, ornamental prime blossom on a trading estate in Telford.

There’s brightness, as there always is. But you have to look for it. Hard.