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April 20th – Britain is obsessed with it’s refuse. I say obsessed, but only to a certain extent. We become very energised about having it taken away – debates rage about recycling, bi-weekly collections and fines. Oddly enough, we never seem too bothered about where our rubbish goes after it’s collected, so long as the landfill or incinerator isn’t near us or something we love. Walsall Council gets a fair amount of stick for it’s waste service, but I feel it’s generally unfair. We have wheelie bins, and decent schedules. Here in Leicester, rubbish is left out in different coloured bags the night before, where foxes and cats rip it open and spread it around. Bags frequently split on handling and their contents litter the road. The residents of Leicester, like those of Birmingham, would love a service as clean and reliable as that in Walsall.

April 19th – Returning from Lichfield, I was still managing to avoid the showers. Everywhere seemed damp, verdant and growing. Birds scuttled in an out of the hedgerows, rabbits darted into ditches and roadside warrens. Crossing the M6 toll at Summerhill, near Sandhills, the weak sunlight captured a field of oilseed rape near Stonnall, lit the whole thing up and made it precious. Some moments catch the light like diamonds.

April 19th – A week of threatening dark skies continued. I had, however, been oddly lucky; I had to go to Leicester for a few days, and only caught a light shower on the way. As I arrived at South Wigston early morning, the gloom gathered, and it rained throughout the day, but held off just as the I awaited my return train that afternoon. I know we need the rain, but psychologically, I need some summer. A real quandary…

April 18th – Baby weather – wet and windy, but warm. I worked from home before heading off mid-morning for a meeting in Redditch. It was drizzly and wet, but the riding through Stonnall and Little Aston was great. I saw lots of birds – great tits, blue tits, long-tailed tits, greenfinches, bullfinches, goldfinches, buzzards, a kestrel, a jay. I saw a countless rabbits, and a fox. Summer is coming. I can feel it. The rain is getting warmer….

April 15th – I wasn’t going to mention this, I really wasn’t, but I’m finding it increasingly irritating. On some jobs, a spirit level is essential. Amongst these should be the jobs that nature holds a natural ruler to. The new concrete plinth atop the outlet culvert at Anglesey Basin, at Chasewater, is such a situation. The water below it will always be level. Consequently, the fact that the plinth was cast on top on the skew will always be visually obvious. I wince every time I see it. Unfortunate.

(For those not sure what I mean, the gap between the water and the underside of the plinth increases considerably to the left. It’s not an optical illusion, it actually does.)

April 14th – It was starting to rain as I pottered about by the ‘marina’ in Brownhills, just off Silver Street. I don’t know why, but it’s compulsory that any development ever passing near a waterway has to have one, and Brownhills in the 1980s was no exception. When the current stores were built here – then a Hillards supermarket and a Great Mills DIY store, they paved a section of canal bank, put in a few hitching posts and called it a marina. I once joked that it was named after the famous Leyland car, and was horrified to hear someone take that seriously and recount the tale in seriousness. It’s not a bad feature these days – the blossom and trees are pleasant, and now we have the Canoe Centre at one end, boats do moor here from time to time. It could do with a bit of love, though. 

April 13th – Ah, the true English. Yesterday, I feature my first bluebell of the year, spotted on a verge at Sandhills, near Brownhills. Sadly, it was the foreign, invasive variety. I should, have course, realised that the English ones would have been easy to find in the Arrow Valley, also a haven of my beloved wild garlic. If you compare this plant with that featured yesterday, you’ll note the blooms droop more, are generally more delicate, largely on one side of the stem and the colour is a richer violet.

You can’t beat the real thing… even in Redditch.

April 12th – That’s what I love about spring – the firsts. First snowdrop, first daffodil. First yellowhammer. First house martin. Everything starts over in spring, and so it is with the bluebells. These are my first this year. Sadly, they’re the foreign interlopers rather than the English variety, but they’ll do (the English only have blooms on one side of the stem). They’re growing beside the busy A461 Lichfield Road at Sandhills, just near Brownhills. Now we’ve got bluebells, can my favourite, the wild garlic, be far behind?

April 9th – Now, here’s a thing. This lost lane used to cut off the junction between the B5014 Lichfield Road and A515 Tewnalls Lane at Seedy Mill, just north of Lichfield. It offered a short-cut alternative for cyclists and walkers who didn’t fancy the busy junction of two main roads. I’m not sure it ever had a name, but it was cut off and abandoned when the railway that passes through here was expanded to 4 tracks wide towards the end of the last decade. The junctions at either end may have gone, but the metalled road surface remains under a layer of thick moss and weed, as nature slowly claws itself back. You can still walk and cycle it, but from the A515 end, it’s a bit of a scramble up the bank. I think I must be the only person who still uses it.

April 9th – one for the Bob watchers. This narrowboat, which has illicited some passing interest locally, being recorded near Riddians Bridge, Longwood and Anglesey Basin, has moved to Brownhills Canoe and Outdoor Centre at Silver Street, Brownhills. It had been near Chasewater for a couple of weeks, but seems to be on the move again. Never actually caught the owner, but it’s a lovely boat. Certainly brightened up the start of a rather wet bank holiday ride…