Tag: wind

#365daysofbiking Go with the flow

February 27th – The weather at the moment is almost continually foul.

Everywhere is saturated. The canal overflows are at full capacity, like here at Clayhanger; the towpaths are a long series of conjoined puddles. The roads are filthy, swamped and traffic bad tempered.

Every ride means carefully drying waterproofs and bags on arrival.

I’m used to it now. I don’t even frown when I see the rain.

But we must be due an end to it now, surely? Or at least a cessation in the merciless, continual wind please?

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#365daysofbiking Spume

February 23rd – A blustery circuit of Chasewater was hard work but enjoyable. My fitness is returning but the wind – enough to whip up spume on the reservoir – was making life very difficult.

The skies were good though, and when the sun came out, there was perceptible warmth on my face.

I guess we’re all just waiting for better days now.

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#365daysofbiking Here comes the flood

February 16th – A truly dreadful day which saw a huge amount of rain and high winds. Overnight, lots of local roads flooded and there was much damage.

I ventured out after dark, and noted that the lower meadow at Clayhanger Common was doing it’s usual job. It had flooded, storing the water from the canal and local drains that would previously have swamped the village.

Instead, the landscape forms a lake that slowly and safely drains, keeping Clayhanger dry.

The noise and spectacle of this rushing water is a sight to see, but a remarkable bit of landscape engineering.

I do hope the weather will improve soon.

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#365daysofbiking Mill stones

December 25th – Happy Christmas!

A traditional Christmas Day bike ride, but only as far as Chasewater sadly and I noticed something I’d not spotted before: The memorial stones along the canal at Millfield near Home Farm at Sandhills, and the fact that the school on the other side have adopted the stretch of canal from Ogley Junction to Anchor Bridge.

This means they’ll tend it and I guess litter pick it and undertake lovely little projects like the individually painted memorial stones, I guess.

Great stuff.

I do wish the school wouldn’t use a windmill for a logo, though. The Mill field the school was built upon was originally that of a steam mill, now flats, pretty much next door to the school. It was a state of the art temple to Victorian mechanisation.

Never mind…

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#365daysofbiking Consolation

December 8th – I went out early to catch a festive market at Chasewater.

By 11 O’clock it was called off, apparently due to the wind. I found the situation baffling, if I’m honest: I got there as everything was being packed away. I’d actually been looking forward to the event, and felt deflated.

Still, nothing to be done and it was actually quite a nice day, so I carried on for a spin, bumping into this group of ladies on my way to the cafe, which was a decent consolation if I’m honest.

Always nice to see the deer about.

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#365daysofbiking Suckback

September 30th – The first commute in darkness and bad weather of the autumn is always a shock, and this one was dreadful.

The Suck – the name for the gradually darkening, dangerous and unpleasant evening commutes up until Christmas – is a harrowing time.

A combination of bad weather, drivers unused to otherwise familiar journeys now in darkness and lack of patience make for a psychologically and physically difficult time to be on a bike.

It had taken a good ten minutes longer to grind home – and I was still a good way away. I was wet, cold and had a number of very close passes despite lights and hi-vis.

If I could just fast forward to Christmas when the light creeps back and people have settled down, that would be great cheers.

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#365daysofbiking No shit, Sherlock

September 30th – I’ve never been a fan of the dot matrix signs at the major road gateways to our towns and cities – Walsall’s in particular seem to be uniquely superfluous.

Riding home in dreadful wether – driving rain and a headwind – they were, at least, accurate.

For heaven’s sake…

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#365daysofbiking Thistle and down

August 8th – Winching myself up Shire Oak Hill past Sandhills at the end of another long day, I noticed the thistles in the hedgerow, now gone to seed.

The breeze will soon catch those tufts of fluff and carry the attached seeds on the wind, hopefully to fertile fresh soil.

I loved how silly and beautiful the downy, soft seed carries were and how they caught the light. Thistles really are beautiful plants.

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#365daysofbiking Make a wish

July 10th – By the cycleway in Telford, I found this lovely seed head. It takes a jolly good breath to blow the seeds off these!

Not a dandelion – far too large, at least a couple of inches in diameter, with big, stout wind-borne seeds. The plant itself was a good couple of feet tall.

Following enquiries on social media it turns out to be salsify, or goat’s beard, a plant once prized for it’s edible root.

I can’t say i’ve ever noticed the flowers, though. I must look harder now I know what to spot.

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#365daysofbiking Into the blue

June 30th –  A rest day, a day for bike maintenance and feeling a little bit down after the exertions of the previous days. The weather was less warm and it felt a bit like that had been summer.

I slipped out in the afternoon for a gentle spin and cruised a loop of Brownhills on a test ride. I felt OK, fluid, and not stiff, but I was already yearning to be out again – but the wind was quite strong and I really wasn’t into it. I ran some errands and caught up with things.

The landscape at Home farm was beautiful in its high summer jacket, and on the positive side, it does look now like summer has started.

As my ride reminded me, perhaps this was the start, not the end.

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