Galleries

September 30th – Today, I visited the annual cycle show, this year held at the NEC, Birmingham. There’s a writeup and a Flickr gallery on my main blog, but I’d just like to point out that to outsiders, cycling is a uniform thing. You get on a bike, you ride it. There’s actually a who ecosystem of subcultures going on in the cycling world – from utility cyclists managing family life and crying kids in safety, to the recumbent guys and their fascinating, specialist machines. That’s why I love the cycle show, it opens your eyes to different possibilities. The show is open until Sunday evening.

September 29th – I’ve been passing this odd little feature for years without realising what it was, only learning of it’s true nature a year ago. The ‘park’ – such as it is – lies in the triangle of the junction where Farewell Lane meets Church Road in Burntwood, just by the parish church. Who’d have thought such a small, railing enclosed verge could be classed as a park? It’s a lovely thing, but I wonder which tree is which? 

September 29th – A gorgeous indian summer day. I escaped to the Chase for the third time in a week, and explored again the area around Brocton and into the Sherbrook Valley. I made a half-hearted attempt to find Freda’s Grave, which is near there, but I didn’t have it marked on my map and was ultimately unsuccessful, but I’ll return another day. Freda was an army mascot for a regiment stationed on the chase, and a commemorative stone was laid in her honour. 

What I did find, however, was an astounding array of fungi sprouting up. Blumels, puffballs, chicken of the woods. This most peculiar autumn is well into it’s stride, but I think the sun has yet to get the message, thankfully.

September 28th – The light was incredible today. On my way to work it was hazy and misty, and the sunlight was softened by the season. On my return, the golden hour was equally mesmerising – the lanes of Stonnall were bathed in long shadows and everything seemed to take on a rich, golden hue. I’m loving this burst of indian summer. It seems to be accelerating the autumn, the laves are shedding quickly now, and under horse chestnut trees and oaks the ground is littered with fruit. Yet again, I’m feeling the seasons’ change breathing down my neck.

September 26th – The crews working on the overhead electricity line running over Mill Green seem to be wrapping up now – the scaffold support towers have been dismantled, and the warning signs have gone from the lanes of the area. There is still the odd vehicle parked near pylons in fields and gateways, however, as stuff is collected and tested. On my way to work this morning I spotted this hank of cable in a field gateway near Little Aston, and resolved to photograph it when I came home. I wondered why such a huge quantity of wire had not been stolen for scrap… then I checked it out. It’s not electrical wire, but multicored fibre optic cable. I hadn’t noticed before, but this seems to be wound around the bonding wires – the very top ones – between towers on the transmission line. Routing such cables in this way must be a good earner for the operators of the National Grid, as they can carry huge amounts of data, and the route is very direct without the hassle of digging. Genius.

September 25th – Another afternoon ride on and around the Chase, I again crossed Shugborough – this time in the other direction. I’d headed over Longdon Edge and through Rugeley, then from Milford Common I’d visited the Stepping Stones, Seven Springs, Wolseley Plain and Hednesford. I don’t normally cycle this route in this direction; it was a hard ride over the Chase, but well worth it. My, the rise from Milford to Stepping Stones is a hell of a challenge.

September 24th – Having had a look at the bike shop in Milford, I cut through the Shugborough estate to Great Haywood. The seat of the late Earl of Lichfield is by turns wonderful, quirky and depressing. There are magical corners to this estate, from Tixall ‘wides’ – the canal widened to look like lakes – to the deciduous woods and odd, ugly follies. It depresses me as there’s little to actually do here that doesn’t cost money. I’d stop for tea in the cafe, but you have to have a ticket. It’s all a bit sad, really.

There’s a lovely small rare breeds farm, and I’m rather taken with the miniature goats.

September 24th – Up on Cannock Chase, I decided to pay a visit to Brocton Field. I hadn’t been here for eighteen months or so. The monuments here – the ornamental and functional – are a desolate as ever. The triangulation pillar here is one of the last three to survive on Cannock Chase, the one at Castle Ring long since removed. I’m not sure what the stone memorial is. Coming down into Brocton, a small group of fallow deer were in the trees to the west, but sadly, the photos of those didn’t come out to well.

September 23rd – The old boatyard and basin at Ogley Junction have a chequered history, really. Once the home of a commercial boatyard, the truncated stub of the closed Lichfield and Hatherton canal is now being rented out for private narrowboat mooring, and is also in use as a work yard for British Waterways maintenance crews. Hopefully one day, the canal will once again extend from here to Huddlesford, near Whittington, but for now it stops at The Long Pound. Quite what’s going on with the half-car on the trailer is anyone’s guess…