Tag: winter

#365daysofbiking Stirring

January 4th – In Kings Hill Park again at lunchtime heading for B&Q, I stopped to note that ostensibly, it was very much winter, and the park looked as darkly green and growthless as it always does at this time every year.

But wait up.

Stop and look, and honey fungus is growing in the grass – and bedgraggled daisies are still very much in bloom. But better than these side effects of a so far warm winter, the spring flowers are coming now: They have stirred in the death and are sending green shoots upwards.

Soon, there will be flowers.

My heart sang.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2CPzi7Q
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking – Misty grey

January 3rd – On my way home, I crossed Kings Hill Park. I expected this cold, harsh evening to have much clearer air, but it was in fact quite misty and the view of the twin sisters of Wednesbury I’d hoped for – clear and well defined – was actually a murky grey image in shades of grey and very pale yellow electric light.

But it was rather beautiful in a very dark, Turner-is way.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2RuqEUy
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Getting better every day

January 2nd – Back on the 21st December my heart was lifted, as it always its, by the thought that we’d had the shortest day of the year, and that now the sunset would get later and later and the night and darkness would retreat for another year.

Well, not two weeks later, and the sunset is already 10 minutes later than it was on that day.

Ten minutes may not seem much, but it’s significant. Although the timetable to which the day lengthens is fixed, the rapidity of the change is always impressive to me and the retreat of night, being loosely sinusoidal, accelerates as we escape winter.

That six hundred seconds of gleaned light mean that on a clear day, it’s not really dark until well after 4:30pm. Soon light will leak into my evening commutes, and all will be well again.

I so hate the darkness.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2sa3Qeo
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking A fun guy

Christmas Day – A Christmas Day ride was a tradition long before I started 365daysofbiking – there’s nothing better to prepare for a big meal than a good blast on the bike.

Today, my options were confined as my time was limited, so I opted for a fast run up the canal to Chasewater. On the way, I noticed this fungus – tramates of some sort I think – on a felled tree by the M6 Toll.

Unusual to find it in midwinter looking so good. Possibly a sign of the unusually warm season so far.

This journal is moving home. Please find out more by clicking here.

from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2LyWwlm
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Cold enough to…

 

December 14th – Gosh, that was a shock.

I was heading for home early, but it was cold, so very cold and sharp. I looked at the GPS for the temperature – -2.7C at 6:45pm. It felt enough to freeze the bollocks from off a fox.

It looks like winter has arrived, my friends…

from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2UWgXgk
via IFTTT

 

#365daysofbiking Into the mystic:

December 12th – Out and about on errands during the (very bitter) day, although it was bitingly cold, there was occasional weak sun, and like yesterday, there was a part mist, part smog hanging over the Black Country making things magical again.

At Victoria Park in Darlaston, the mystic bridge was looking gorgeous and it felt good to be out.

Perhaps the cold means there might be snow before Christmas? I do hope so…

This journal is moving home. Please click here for more information.
from Tumblr https://ift.tt/2LkzHSF
via IFTTT

#365daysofbiking Grimness:

November 29th – Although we’re approaching the shortest day – when the advance of night is defeated and light gradually seeps back into my life – this next three weeks are the hardest commutes of the year. 

This evening I noted from the bike computer that sunset is now before 4pm for the first time this winter, and it will creep almost ten minutes earlier as the weeks wear on.

The commutes will be heavy with seasonal traffic, there will be grim weather and the trains when used will be a mess.

It’s the same every year and I hate it.

#365daysofbiking Holding on:

November 23nd – It’s been a tough week, I don’t mind admitting. Work has been hard and everything else has been manic. The weather hasn’t been too wonderful either.

But, it’s Friday, and even though the day was grey and overcast, the daisies on the verge outside work were doing their best to be cheerful.

#365daysofbiking Kissed by the cold:

November 22nd – Pleased to note there’s still some fungi about at the moment.  The earthstars seem to have given up for this year, but these ice-coated glistening ink caps were glistening with frost when I found them in Victoria Park, Darlaston this morning.

Such delicate, beautiful things, I suppose the frost must harm them but it does look lovely.

I doubt there will be much more fungi this year now. it’s been a much better season than expected, to be fair.

#365daysofbiking Rime and season:

November 22nd – First really cold morning of the year I think, with lurking black ice and hedgerows and verges adorned with a hoar frost. It was the kind of penetrating cold that hurts your throat and forehead, and even though I was wrapped up, on the morning trail, towpaths and cycleways the -2.5 degree temperatures were still a little raw for me.

Every year it takes time to re-adjust.

I was certainly glad of the ice tyres this morning.