May 25th – As we advance to late spring and early summer, some of my favourite flowers are emerging now; birds foot trefoil ‘egg and bacon’, buttercups, elderflowers and ox-eye daisies all brighten the verges, hedgerows and edge lands of my commute.
Such lovely flowers. How I love this busy, colourful time of year.
May 24 – On the cycleway between Walsall and Pelsall, the former rail line crossed Fordbrook Lane in Pelsall. Even when this was a rail bridge, it suffered problems with vandals dropping rocks onto the cars below; finally, Sustrans – the charity that maintain the cycleway – have erected a fence to alleviate the problem.
It’s a complex structure, and I wonder how effective it’ll be. But seeing some of the other odd things they’ve got up to lately, nothing surprises me.
May 24 – I ‘m convinced that whatever gave rise to moorhens and coots existing had the plans backwards. Baby coots – featured here last week – look, as Phil Griffin put it ‘Like badly knitted moorhens’ – and he’s right. On the other hand, apart from the remarkable feet, these moorhen chicks could easily thought to be coots.
The antics of both are hugely comical, however. So nice to see.
May 23 – At Catshill Junction on the way back, a small, domestic thriller: a young, very ginger cat was watching a pair of unconcerned mallards, maybe thinking of plum sauce.
Of course, I broke the spell, and butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. What a lovely stripy fellow!
May 23 – I get a bit tired sometimes of defending Brownhills, Walsall and the Black Country. People call all three dirty, unpleasant, polluted, ugly.
All these animals were seen on my journey to and from work today. There can’t be many urban situations where you pass deer and herons on a Monday morning, can there?
I particularly liked the cygnet preening, just like it’s mum.
I love this place.
May 22nd – Another good riding day, but I was a bit tired, and didn’t go as far as I’d hoped, topping out at 55 miles. The sun was lovely, but a sudden gusty wind between about 2:30 and 3:30 was puzzling and difficult. I went up around Blithfield Reservoir, called into Abbots Bromley for tea and remarkable cake, then up to Newborough and back through the Needwood Valley.
The stunning work of Oldrid Scott on that amazing church never ceases to amaze.
The views and hedgerows are beautiful right now – but does anyone know what the pink-flowered tree is? It’s like a horse chestnut tree, but different. It’s absolutely lovely.
May 21st – Up on Cannock Chase, I went looking for a fire tower I’d heard had been rebuilt. These watchtowers are scattered throughout the forest, and I thought they’d slipped out of use; when I last visited this one up near Sow Street high on Wolseley Park in 2011, it had collapsed in the bad weather and was nothing more than a pile of rotten wood. Tipped off by fellow local historian Dave Fellows, I discovered in the week that it had been rebuilt – so I went to check it out.
Sadly, it’s gated at the top so you can’t get in, but it’s a curious thing with an otherworldly feel. As the rain began to fall, the clearing the tower sits in – on the junction of five or six firebreaks for best visibility – came alive. Solitary, quiet apart from the rain on leaves, I realised how much wildlife was around on a dull day; I could hear deer in the wood, and the fungus and flowers were wonderful.
Then the heavens opened – but dry in waterproofs, even that was a sensory wonder.
May 20th – I’d had enough. The week had been tough and I needed time out – so taking advantage of a temporary lull at work I left early and headed out. The weather wasn’t great, with an insistent southwesterly and generally overcast skies, but it was warm enough and the sun did make it out on occasions.
I headed up to Rosliston, hoping to catch the Honeypot cafe, but the opening hours were shorter than those listed online, and it was shut. Having a brainwave, I went instead to the cafe at the Rosliston Forestry Centre, which was decent and is open daily until 5pm. From there, Linton, Caldwell, Gresley, Netherseal, then back via No Mans Heath, Haunton, Syerscote, Hopwas and Weeford.
This was just the thing my soul needed, and 75 miles later, I felt much better.
May19th – I passed along the canal at Bentley Mill Way later than usual, and noted that the swan brood here had hatched. I say brood, but I’m not sure what the singular of brood actually is; momma swan clearly only laid one egg this year, the remnants of which are all I can see in the nest.
I noted the parents travelling down the canal with their cygnet between them, proud attentive parents. I also noticed an interested heron; lets hope he decided not to run the gauntlet of the angry swan couple.
This pair do seem to have small clutches. I hope little one survives.
May 18th – Riding home along a damp canal on a grey evening commute, I noticed the apple blossom is really, really profuse this year. This crab apple tree near the Black Cock Bridge in Walsall Wood is absolutely beautiful – and the scent is wonderful.
With decent weather in the last few days, hopefully pollination will be good. Certainly plenty of bees about, even on their grey, chilly evening.
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