June 21st – An abortive ride terminated early due to a silly mechanical problem I hadn’t got the tool on me to fix, but I still got 20 miles in. Over at Anglesey Basin, the swan family were contentedly preening together on the canal bank between the towpath and the water, and weren’t troubled by my presence at all.
Still seven cygnets, all growing well. Lovely to see.
June 20th – I came back along the lanes around Stonnall for the first time in a while. On such a warm, sunny afternoon they were a delight to the soul, and very green and peaceful.
At Stonnall itself, I noted the barn conversion at the top of Main Street is nearly complete. A beautiful, painstaking job, the pointing alone has been a work of art. I was initially shocked when the covering bushes were cut down, but this is a sympathetic and lovely conversion and the craftspeople and designers should be proud. I love the way the dovecote in the eaves has been preserved, too.
A fine thing indeed.
June 19th – Passing through Lichfield today on my way home, I stopped by Festival Gardens to check out the conker trees. They seem to be in fairly good nick, and aren’t showing much leaf miner activity at the moment. They are, however, showing a huge amount of fruit.
I think it’s going to be another great year for conkers. The spiny cased nuts look almost prehistoric to me at this stage.
June 18th – A little curio I’ve been passing for years in Leicester. A higeldy-pigeldy row of water stopcocks in a pavement, numbered from 3 to 16. One is unnumbered.
They start in an orderly fashion, then the seuence falls to pieces.
They are labelled in weld – that is, someone drew the numbers using a welder, so the digits stand proud, like metallic icing on a cake. Over years and years, people walking over them have polished the digits to a shine.
But what became of 1 and 2?
June 18th – Back in Leicester, and a better look at South Wigston station’s wasteland garden. Today, amongst the truly beautiful, feral flowers, I found a plaque which answers many questions.
Wonder what happened to the friends of this lonely halt? I think I’m the only friend it has these days. But the love is strong, and that’s what counts.
I’m certain there’s a story in here somewhere.
June 16th – I called in at South Wigston on the way back, to kill two birds with one stone. The wasteland at the station there is beautiful again – brambles, ox eye daisies, thistles and dog roses mingled with a couple of unknowns. Considering this land – sitting between the access ramp and the platform – is totally abandoned and no more than 15 square metres, it holds no end of delights all year round. Stunning.
June 15th – The flora was also showing well, and the blackberry and dewberry brambles are flowering intensely this year – so if we get a nice few days with plenty of bees and bugs, there should be another ample crop of blackberries this autumn. The lovely, paper-white flowers are rarely studied closely, such is their proliferation, but they are most delicate, attractive things.
I was also pleased to note that following the great marsh orchid massacre – where the plants I had been lovingly watching were mown off by a C&RT grass cutting crew a week or so ago – another abundant patch seems to be growing on the slope down to the new pond at Clayhanger.
I love those orchids. I never saw anything like them here when I was younger, and cherish them as a sign of how much better the ecology generally is around here these days.
June 15th – It was only a short run around Brownhills and up to Chasewater, as I wasn’t feeling to clever and it was a dreadfully overcast, grey afternoon.
My mood was lifted though by all the young animals I saw around and about – two families of goslings at different stages of development at the Watermead; a foal grazing on a lush meadow yellow with buttercups at Brownhills Common; the Catshill swan family, still numbering seven, growing all the time.
Inbetween, too quick to capture, I saw terns, a couple of herons, rabbits, squirrels and buzzards.
I particularly liked what I assume to be the foal’s mum, who was wading through the pool in their meadow munching on the lush green shoots growing from it.
I might not have felt any better physically, but the sights I saw cheered me up no end.
Saturday 14th June 2014
” Sent to Coventry “
Well not quite Coventry, but Polesworth on the outskirts of Tamworth.
Another great canal greenway that cuts through the Staffordshire countryside, good towpaths and very friendly locals and boaters. A well deserved pint ( or two ) at the Bulls Head.
After listening to the locals discussing the possibility of England winning the world cup, it was time to head back, 19mls or so all in. Another stretch of the canal system chalked off the to do list !
Saturday 14th June 2014
“ Lets do the Fazeley ”
With a free weekend ahead of us it was a spur of the moment decision to investigate the Birmingham and Fazeley canal. Although we have cycled this canal many times before ! we have never got further north than the Dog & Doublet pub.
Todays trip was to start at the Dog & Doublet, and just see were we ended up. A few miles further and another decision has to be made !
Fradley or Coventry ?
After a brief rest to take on fluids, we find ourselves heading towards Coventry.
Ooh, cycled that bit last week!
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