July 1st – It was a great sunset, which I caught best from Meerash near Hammerwich.
The sunsets lately really have been excellent.
I’m also a sucker for radio transmitters and sunsets – I find something really enigmatic about them.
A great end to not the best day, but a good evening outing none the less.
July 1st – Half the year gone already. Where on earth did that go?
I was unwell after eating something I shouldn’t (Life with IBS often means interrogating people who cook for you about what ingredients they use, but sometimes, you feel embarrassed and eat anyway). The pumpkin seeds in a casserole from a friend the night before were really causing me hell, and I didn’t get out until early evening.
I met family at a country pub in Longdon for a lazy, louche, sunny Sunday evening social, riding there and back. The countryside is showing well at the moment with ripening crops and the greens going dark and maturing.
I particularly liked the lithe, stripy puss I saw in Hammerwich. – he was definitely the neighbourhood watch!
June 30th – At Hints Ford, the water was cool and the air shady and still, and I spent a good 30 minutes just enjoying the relaxed, verdant scene and listening to water.
Sometimes, after a long ride, that’s all you really need.
I’ve been coming here since I was 12. It’s not really changed much, thankfully. This place is in my heart.
June 30th – A recovery day, with a surprisingly tough, enervating recovery ride which saw my energy levels very low indeed.
Whilst I’d been careful to look after my fluids and nutrition on the big ride of the previous day, I hadn’t had anything much to eat today, and it caused me real problems I think.
Even still, it was a decent ride out to Hopwas and Hints on a sunny, warm afternoon, and this puss at Stockfields was so comfy he wasn’t going to be disturbed by anyone….
June 29th – A dayride from Macclesfield back home, via the Trentabank, the Roaches, Royal Cottage, Morridge, Longnor, Hurdlow, the High Peak Trail, Carsington, Holland, Hatton, ALrewas, Whitemoor Haye, Weeford and Shenstone, totalling 121 miles.
I really am back in the saddle this season, thanks to the excellent weather, and a bit of determination.
June 28th – I had an early meeting in Droitwich, so cycled back home. I’ve always loved the stretch of canal up through Browmsgrove and Alvechurch to Birmingham, so many sights, although now, north of Kings Norton it’ a bike-commuter trunk route and one has to concentrate hard on other users, which prevents you taking in the best of it.
The way over the Wast Hills Tunnel is arduous but interesting, and I still love the Birmingham University Clock; such an elegant edifice.
In between, peaceful rural and urban waterway.
I’m curious about the growing fashion for jokey, not that funny, punny names for narrowboats. They seem to be allowed the same artistic license as hair salons and some of the worst city centre bars. Bewildering.
A great ride on a day much hotter than expected.
June 27th – Since we’re in high, hot summer we’re now in a phase of darker flowers – purples, reds, dark blues. And that means the thistles are coming out.
Spotted flowering on industrial wasteland in Pleck, this gorgeous thistle was alive with tiny back bugs.
I immediately felt sorry for the plant. But who knows? They may have been doing it good…
Fascinating, all the same.
June 26th – Another hot and sunny day, and on the way to work, it was clear that fish has been breeding successfully in the canal at Pleck: Looking into the green water under Scarborough Road bridge, tends of thousands of tiny fry had had hatched. Further up the canal, larger fish were heading in that direction, one presumes fo lunch.
Who’d ever have thought these canals would be so green, beautiful and full of life?
June 25th – Riding home from Shenstone it seemed like the hottest afternoon ever. Of course it wasn’t, but I was tired, the hay fever was giving me hell and energy was low.
I notice now that the haymaking is ongoing, in great weather for it, a the Footherley Brook looked as gorgeous and changeless as it must have done for decades.
I was quite impressed with the image quality of the cathedral view from Shire Oak: for a camera with limited zoom that’s not a bad image at all.
June 25th – Over in Telford on Monday morning, sun streamed down on construction workers and engineers preparing for the following week when a huge crane will lift the first, over-railway section of the new bridge into place from where it’s being assembled right next to the westbound platform.
Last week I couldn’t work out how they were going to lift it into place with nothing to put it on – then today I realised that as well as the deck, the piers had been assembled out of their final position too – the two lattice and glass pillar towers beyond the green crane will be bolted onto the matching concrete bases each side of the railway, and the new deck bolted to it, spanning the tracks.
What I can’t work out is why they’ve fitted the glazing before they finally lift the towers – surely moving them will fleet the structure so much the glass will break?
Perhaps it’s tougher than I think… we shall see, I guess…
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