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#365daysofbiking The world spins, me a apart of it:

November 1st – My worry was misplaced. I had good news from the hospital, and rode gently back, taking in the air which with my inbuilt mood filter switched off, was now sunny and cheering.

What better time to enjoy the parks of Darlaston, Victoria and Kings Hill? What better time to sit and appreciate the leaves, the dog walkers, the birds and my beloved Black Country?

It made a change to have lightness in my heart. That’s been a rare thing of late.

dry-valleys:

“This is without doubt the most impressive and complex prehistoric monument in the area” Byron Machin.

Reading Byron Machin’s book on stone circles led me to Arbor Low, on my first visit since 2002, where a snowstorm didn’t stop me appreciating what this place has to offer.

What the stones were put here for were originally and whether they stood or lay is hotly debated, but we know they were quarried from a nearby limestone payment and have thus been exposed for thousands of years even before their planting my Neolithic peoples in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BC, and that there were once many more stones before the stripping of the site by local farmers.

The ritual uses of the site can only be guessed at, but Machin offers a tantalising glimpse; “it appears that most of the stones had their weathered sides facing inwards and their smooth cut sides facing out. The reasons for this are unknown”.

The first excavation was led by Thomas Bateman in 1848; he also excavated (1,2) Gib Hill, a nearby burial mound closely tied in with Arbor Low. By this time the stones closely resembled what is here now, though we don’t know what its prior state was; Samuel Pegge said in 1783 that the stones were “formerly erect, now flat” though this is not known for sure.

Very early on the site received statutory protection, and has been in state care since 1884, now a Grade II scheduled monument looked after by English Heritage. A further excavation in 1901, led by Harold St George Gray, revealed male human remains here, the man ceremonially buried by those who had built the henge originally.

This is one of a great chain, next leading on to the Bull Ring and Nine Ladies, and I look forward to connecting it.

#365daysofbiking Parked:

October 30th – My peaceful retreat Kings Hill Park is looking gorgeous in it’s autumn palette right now and I’m really enjoying it.

Sadly, the flowers haven’t been so good this year, and I fear cost cutting at Walsall Council may have been to blame, but none of that detracts from the essential beauty of this peaceful, beautiful urban oasis, where I often stop, separate myself from the workaday stress and have a brew and a think.

This place will always be mine, whatever the season.

#365daysofbiking A goldmine:

October 30th – A shoutout here for a little shop in Darlaston I love – Mindful Gifts. It’s a charity shop, but not as we know it Jim: It’s a veritable treasure trove of music, books, ephemera and great miscellany at really low prices. 

Mindful Gifts is run in aid of folk with dementia and it a really wonderful charity -and there’s always a buzz around the shop. Find out more here.

Do pay a visit if you’re in Darlaston.

#365daysofbiking Night falls:

October 29th – Travelling back home in the first of the end of British Summer Time commutes is always hard: I wasn’t late, but it was dark, and cold. I got passed by two gritters. Progress was slow. 

Winter is upon me.

This means rejigging the photography a bit, as it’s had to find subjects in darkness, so the activity tends to shift to morning, or during errands or trips in the daytime.

Oh well, it’s here. Let’s do this.

#365daysofbiking Finding what’s important:

October 28th – I was lost. The week had been stressful, Saturday had been a disaster in many ways and I felt beaten, down and hopeless.

I did what I always do at times like this – wrapped up warm, got on my bike and hit Cannock Chase.

I found rutting deer at Brocton Field; marvelled at the sunset over Sherbrook Valley, laughed at a retriever playing fetch in the water at Stepping Stones. I raced down to Seven Springs, listened to owls calling in Abrahams Valley and rode the night forest braking sharply for foxes at Brindles Heath.

Some days. the forest is all you really need, and it does just what you require. 

#365daysofbiking Not forgotten:

October 28th – I was charmed and humbled passing through Hednesford on a much needed restorative ride to Cannock Chase to note the main square has been decorated with knitted and other hand made poppies and material for Remembrance. 

It’s really very impressive, and sobering. It’s beautiful to see so many displays of Remembrance in towns and villages at the moment, particularly on the centennial anniversary of the end of the Great War.

My thanks and compliments to those who took time out to make and arrange this display. Real community in action.

#365daysofbiking Stars on earth:

October 27th – A grey, very very low day where things again went horribly wrong. I’m not having much luck with weekends at the moment.

Riding back from a fools errand in Walsall Wood, on the canal between Catshill Junction and the Silver Street Bridge, I noticed that the colony of earthstar fungus that I thought last winter’s cold weather had killed off completely has actually survived with some decent examples.

Hopefully some decent weather might help the group recover and re-spore successfully to give them some better years in future.

A rare bright spot in a very grim, down day.

#365daysofbiking Catching the leaves:

October 26th – Heading to Hortonwood from Telford Station on the cycleway, I crossed the motorway bridge to Priorslee and my attention was caught by the sunlight catching the turning leaves.

Motorways are not beautiful but they do have a particular charm, especially in autumn when their embankments, generally undisturbed havens for wildlife, become especially beautiful.

#365daysofbiking Stars on earth:

October 25th – The Darlaston earthstar fungus colony continues to fascinate me. These relatively rare, alien looking fungi are growing under a thicket on an anonymous, ordinary industrial estate near where I work.

Every day, a new star opens. 

I wasn’t sure what bud or genesis they had, but today I found out that they start as a very well camouflaged ‘ball’, which splits into the ‘petals’ of the star.

They really are strange, fascinating things.