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#365daysofbiking How do you like those apples?

September 24th – Interesting to see this year the large crop of healthy, plump fruit, which has turned my understanding on its head: I always thought that in hot, dry summers fruit harvests suffered.

This autumn, the hedgerows, commons and woods are populated by trees laden with fruit – from hazelnuts to apples, beech nuts to pears, it’s been a fine harvest.

These apples growing by the canal at Darlaston actually look delicious, but sadly, well out of passing reach…

#365daysofbiking Better than expected:

September 23rd: On the canal on the way to Chasewater, I stopped to admire the view. It was a lovely autumn day and the colours of the dying back vegetation in the golden hour were gorgeous.

This is a lovely stretch of canal, particularly at this time of year for obvious reasons, and it gives great views of the Anchor Pub and Bridge.

Considering the weather forecast today was awful, it didn’t turn out too bad in the end.

#365daysofbiking Repellent magnetism:

September 22nd – There’s a current fad happening on local canals at the moment that’s really bloody irritating.

Magnet fishing.

Well, perhaps not the activity itself, but the end result. Chancers get hold of very strong magnets on the likes of eBay and then tie them to a line and dredge them along the canals to see what metal they pull out.

I guess they’re looking for interesting stuff, but nobody’s going to pull out gold coins, only ferrous stuff, obviously although I’m not sure the anglers have twigged that yet.

The problem comes when they pull out worthless junk: They just leave it on the towpath for some other poor sod to deal with, where it blocks access and really makes the canals look messy.

To my mind, these people are, at the very least, littering and should be prosecuted if caught.

Thankfully, selfless and dedicated volunteers in collection boats – here seen passing through Tipton – are working to clear up the mess left by these irresponsible, greedy scavengers.

#365daysofbiking Warm rain and what lies beneath:

September 22nd – Thanks to a reminder from the most excellent Stymaster, I got to attend the Tipton Canal and Community Festival, all be it on a really wet, rainy dray. The weather notwithstanding, I had an excellent time, as can be seen on my main blog here.

Having ridden to Tipton from home in the rain, I decided to carry on down the canal into Birmingham following the old mainline into Birmingham.

This time of year, the Galton Cutting is gorgeous, and it’ll be even better when the leaves really start to turn.

The huge maze of scaffold under the M5 viaduct at Oldbury is hugely impressive from underneath, too. I wonder how many delayed, queueing motorists above know the complexity of what lies underneath them?

#365daysofbiking Duck tales:

September 21st – The humble mallard duck doesn’t get much love, but I’ve always held that, like magpies, if you study them in any more than the most cursory fashion, they’re absolutely beautiful. The iridescent, shimmering greens of the males are lovely enough, but also the females are very much more than drab brown; if you study them, they have the most gorgeous blue and white flashes on their wings.

But better than appearance is their personality and social behaviour – here on the overflow in Brownhills near Silver Street, the ducks were in parliament doing what ducks do – sat in running water, dozing, chattering and generally being the best ducks they can ever be.

Such contented creatures.

#365daysofbiking Humongous:

September 19th – A real find on the enclosed football pitch next to the old Smith’s Flour Mill in Walsall, next to the central Ring Road – quite the largest giant puffball I’ve ever seen.

This prize specimen looks a little old to eat and was beyond reach anyway through the fence, but I did giggle at the idea of it being kicked accidentally, mistaken for a football.

What a whopper!

#365daysofbiking An impressive span:

September 17th – At Telford, a major step in the contstruction of the new station footbridge has been taken – the deck of the main span over the ring road adjacent has been lifted into place. It’s huge.

I watched it grow from a skeletal form on the central reservation of the road system, to see it glazed clad and wired, and now it spans the roadway in parallel with the facility it is to replace.

As a design, I’m ambivalent, but it will be a much nicer, convenient thing to use. But there’s a long, long way to go yet.

At least it provided the morning commuters with an interesting spectacle.

#365daysofbiking Farewell wellfare:

September 16th – The rain steadily increased, and I headed up the gorgeous Cross o’ th’ Hand lane to Farewell, where I called in at the church in steady rain.

Farewell church, possibly dating back in part to the 1400s (some say earlier) is gorgeous and the rain enhanced the sad beauty of the roses in the graveyard.

A sad day punctuated with great beauty.

#365daysofbiking Dead and buried:

September 16th – A grim, drizzly afternoon and a late escape. I went to see if there were any remnants of an ancient burial mound called Offlow near the hamlet of Swinfen, trapped in the A38-A5 interchange triangle, just south of Lichfield.

Apart from a rise in the general landscape, there was nothing but a cellphone transmitter, but I expected that as history says that Offlow was lost over a century ago to farming.

I returned via Lichfield over the Bridleway over the A38 up past Harehurst Hill, near Wall. The main road – pretty much a motorway in all but name – has left a much larger impact on the land than Offlow ever did – which is a bit sad.

#365daysofbiking Spring has sprung:

September 13th – Spotted in a customer’s bike shed, and improvised, clever repair to a brake calliper with a broken return spring.

The return spring – present in some form in nearly every type of brake – forces the brake off once the lever is released.

Since the brake cable pulls the yoke awards the cable end stop to engage the disc brake fitted here, forcing the two apart will duplicate the effect of releasing the brake as performed normally by a return spring. The spring has clearly broken and instead of replacing the whole calliper, the owner has released the cable, threaded on a very stiff spring and re-assembled the cable. The cable retains the spring and the brake operates as normal.

Clever. I’m impressed.