work | BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

#365daysofbiking Things in common

October 12th – Little sleep, online life getting to me and feeling tired. Not a great recipe – but a potter into town for shopping and a coffee was welcome. I headed to The Parade which is always beautiful in autumn, and although too early for the real show, it was still pretty impressive and a good tonic.

I remember this majestic trees being saplings. They are pretty much as old as I am.

And today, I felt very old indeed… Certainly too old to be working into the wee small hours.

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#365daysofbiking Back to black

October 11th – Although technically the next day, it was still my working Friday when I rode back home in a soaking wet, somnambulant landscape in the small hours of the morning.

I didn’t;t trust the few cars that were about, speeding around, so stuck to the canal where the only things around were roosting waterfowl and the odd, dejected and bedraggled fox.

I was tired and mentally dead.

Ah well, it’s the weekend…

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#365daysofbiking Home signal

September 21st – A rough day. I’d been hoping to make it to the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal Huddlesford Heritage Gathering, the biannual canal event near Lichfield, but had to work instead. It had been a nice day and Sunday, when I was free, promised to be awful. I was really low.

Arriving home late, I slipped out for a spin up the old rail line that used to run through Brownhills on it’s way from Walsall to Lichfield, now a lovely walking and cycling trail restored by volunteers and christened the McClean Way.

There’s now a bench been created looking out over Clayhanger Marsh by the restored signal post, and I took advantage of it to feel sorry for myself a little. But the view, the peace, the sight of foxes and herons soon cheered me up.

This is home, and a landscape I love and feel part of. I can’t be downhearted in it for long.

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#365daysofbiking Golden years

August 5th – I was at work in Birmingham, late. I came back on a Lichfield bound train at sunset, and stumbled out tired in a beautiful, quiet golden hour.

I’ve been riding this weary journey from work for years along Lynn Lane. Always the same story: Summertime, working late, fatigue. Climb the long, steep steps up from the platform at Shenstone carrying my bike. Look down the lane towards home and the setting sun. Become struck with the sheer beauty of the hour.

And for all those years, the joy of it, and the love for it never wanes.

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#365daysofbiking Late night feelings

July 26th – All hell broke loose in the afternoon. I had to travel out to investigate an unexpected job. I returned at near enough 11pm by train to Bloxwich.

The night was warm, and the train and station quiet.

I prepared the bike and looked down the line. I was tired, no, worse than that, exhausted. But stood there in the LED light, feeling the night air and listening to – well, nothing – I felt I was near home.

For the first time since last winter, I had those late night feelings again.

What is it with me and railway stations at night?

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#365daysofbiking So glad I made it

July 21st – it really wasn’t my weekend and I was called out to a work emergency in the early hours. I had hoped to get to Barton Gate Steam Rally near Burton, but with a 3pm work finish it looked unlikely.

Due to a lift from my partner and some very sharp thinking on her part, I was deposited bike and all in Kings Bromley and managed to catch the atmosphere for the last hour, which was wonderful. I then enjoyed a lovely summer evening ride.

The help of others is so wonderful and I’m very grateful. I was tired, but needed some headspace and the joy of daft machinery.

I have no idea why the machine on the trailer with crawler tracks is, but I want one.

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#365daysofbiking Long days

June 19th – Working long hours on a difficult project at the moment and I returned one in a pleasant summer dusk after rain had passed.

The towpaths were still a bit wet, so I headed up to Anchor Bridge and down the High Street. In doing so, I caught the setting sun over the canal.

When work is tough, that ride home is like a mental breath of fresh air and provides a buffer between work and home.

And a chance for peace. It was good to be near home.

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#365daysofbiking Hog wild

June 18th – I’d been alerted by the works security system in the night to movement in the yard on CCTV. When I checked it out, two large hedgehogs were courting in the back near the grass where we have a park bench and some grass for time out and the smokers. I watched them with interest as I didn’t know we had hogs at work.

Coincidentally, at work later the groundsmen came to trim the scrub back behind the premises and disturbed this young hoglet, clearly not one of the lovers from the night before.

Cat treats were sought, and the little prickly one ate a large hearty meal before retreating back to the quiet end of the scrub.

Nice to see them about considering the way the population of these charming creatures is suffering of recent years.

Drivers and workers now have signs and instructions to watch for hogs crossing!

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#365daysofbiking Berry sparse

December 20th – Back at work, I noted that the holly trees around the industrial estate where I work, normally heavy by now with a bountiful berry crop – were very sparse this year.

Still, there were enough red berries to feel festive. Bad news for the local birds though.

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