Tag: wind

April 5th – A ride marked by the growing trend towards renewable power. At Thatchmoor, a huge wind turbine turns slowly in the afternoon breeze. Beautiful, elegant and awe-inspiring, I love these silent harvesters of the wind.

Yeah, bring it on. I’d love one in my garden. Hell, make that a whole wind farm….

At Hademoor, huge solar panels rotate as the sun moves through it’s daily arc. Much as I adore Rugeley, it’s clear to see that power generation of the future will be working with, rather than against nature in the decades to come.

I’m glad to see it.

March 31st – A dreadful day to commute, although you’d never tell from the photos. It was very, very windy all day, with strong gusts that felt very threatening. I cycled to and from work in sun, overcast grey, rain and hail. The weather didn’t stay the same for five minutes. Talk about four seasons in one day.

Still, the young heron by the canal at Clayhanger was an unexpected treat. Hopefully, the wind will die down tomorrow and the weather may settle a little.

March 29th – The start of British Summertime, and out of the darkness for another year, but it didn’t feel like it. It was very windy and wet for much of the day, and it wasn’t very warm either. Sneaking out in a break in the rain mid afternoon, I was buffeted around Brownhills which was largely grey and uninspiring.

I did notice that the new flats at the former Wessex Close site were now complete, and looking good. I like them – a huge improvement on what was there before. We need more of this.

March 26th – It was a tough ride; the wind had been forged on Satan’s back step, and blew relentlessly from the southwest. My route had it behind or across me mostly, but the stretch from Gas Street Basin to Smethwick was ceaseless.

But all the while, the sun shone, and otherwise, it wasn’t bad. Birmingham and the Black Country showed itself well, in all it’s diversity.

I noted the cormorants at Sandwell Valley just for Phil. Soon, Phil, soon. I, for one, welcome our new midnight black, long billed, fish-breath overlords…

March 3rd – Cold, windy. Horrid journeys to work, fast and fun journeys back. It seems we’re in for a blustery spring, but it was light nearly all the way home tonight – another week, and I might get home in the light.

Ah, blessed light.

I’ve been fiddling with the new camera – astoundingly to me, these shots were all handheld (I don’t have steady hands). This one seems more sensitive, if that’s the word, and seems to select a faster shutter in lower light than previous models. I’m liking it a lot.

It was a fair sunset tonight, but clear, and harsh. I was glad to get in.

February 19th – Still working long hours and not finding much time or energy for anything else, but hopefully things will ease a bit next week. Winter returned with wet vengeance this morning with driving rain and a headwind. I battled my way into Darlaston, which looked grey and lifeless.

At least the chap waiting for his breakfast at the canteen window on Station Street had cover, of sorts.

January 14th – A cold day with a punishing headwind. Following brief snow the night before, there was an icy covering when I battled to work. I saw the Kingfisher on the canal again – but my ice tyres were so noisy that all I saw was the cobalt blue flash of the bird flying away.

The tyres did make short work of the conditions, though, and the twin spires of Wednesbury looked beautiful from James Bridge Aqueduct.

January 9th – A long day at work, and a blustery commute there and back – but at least it blew me home. Had to nip down to Stonnall on the way back, and noted that the Old Swan Pub seemed busy. A pub that’s changed hands a few times, I think in this day and age it must be hard work to make it pay. 

It looks well loved and cared for at the moment, and it looked to be humming inside.

It also looks brilliant at night.

December 10th – I hopped onto the cycleway at Pelsall Lane, and passing by Mill Lane Local Nature Reserve, the familiar Walsall skyline was pleasingly in a shaft of light.

I’m not really keen on this cycleway. It should be fast and direct – but it’s potholed and slow, and surprisingly hilly here; but this view is always worthwhile.

Allegedly, bad weather was rolling in. The weather sensationalists who seem to get so much attention these days were calling it a ‘weather bomb’ but all I felt was a cold, relentless wind from the south west – the direction in which I was headed.

Like moons, we don’t seem to get normal weather anymore. It has to be ‘most… since records began’ the whole time, just as we once got a full moon, it now has to be a ‘supermoon’.

Spare me the hyperbole. It was nippy. And windy. But it did blow me home.