Images

December 18th – a half day, and chance to nip on an errand to Whittington. The weather was horrid – drizzly, hot and very windy, so I wound my way through the backlanes of Shenstone and Weeford. Heading up Jerrys Lane, i stopped to look east over the A5 bypass to Tamworth. One of the few decent road projects to spin off the M6 Toll, it has cured the traffic issues on the nearby old A5 and A51 beautifully. 

I rode on this just before it opened, but never took any photos. I wished I had – the views from the brow of Rock Hill over Tamworth are extraordinary, particularly at night. But this road is more of a motorway than the M6 Toll, and I wouldn’t dream of cycling it now.

December 17th – A better morning – and rather warm, it has to be said. I dropped onto the canal in Walsall to avoid the traffic, and on the James Bridge Aqueduct, stopped to look at the road improvement works below. The road is being widened in a job that will take months. This area is low, and on the Tame flood channel; they certainly aren’t messing about with that storm buffer – it looks to be at least 3m in diameter.

December 16th – A grim return. I’d been in Birmingham on a late run, and as I left the train at Shenstone the rain was getting quite heavy. Without waterproof trousers, I got soaked. It wasn’t a fun ride, to be honest, but I did realise upon cresting Shire Oak Hill that I hadn’t noticed cycling up it. That’s the sign of familiarity, I think.

Come on Christmas, I’m knackered…

December 15th – Brownhills High Street. Darkness, rain and lights. Time to grab a takeaway, get home, dry off and have a mug or two of tea. 

It felt like Christmas there today. Something about the lights, night and rain; every year, I always feel there are obstacles between me and Christmas – need to get x job finished, attend y event, buy z etc. and they steadily tick down until the holiday.

This year, I seem to have cleared most of the hurdles early, and I have a decided air of smugness about me. This can’t really end well.

December 14th – Sadly, it seems myxomatosis has found the rabbit warren by the canal, just off Chase Road in Brownhills. This elderly rabbit can’t see and wasn’t aware of my presence, only moving when a couple of dogs came close. 

This awful disease sweeps through rabbit populations in waves; the last cases I saw were in Chorley, near Burntwood in 2011. The rabbit populations up there seem healthy and normal again.

It’s sad, but outbreaks like this are causing a gradual immunity to be selected in the rabbit population. In the meantime, I recommend anyone keeping pet rabbits in the locality makes sure they cannot come into contact with their wild brethren.

Let’s hope it passes soon.

December 12th – Tesco, the retail giant, are in trouble. Beset by falling sales, a very competitive market and seemingly mired in financial scandal, they abandoned plans to redevelop Brownhills which left us with a rotting, decaying, derelict shopping centre and no regeneration plan.

Yet still their store operates, raking the money in…

Never mind, it’s Christmas and they’ve put a green paper hat on the sign.

Dear god, why? What an utter, utter waste by a company that can ill afford it. Are we all supposed to cheer? Perhaps Tesco could organise community carolling in Ravens Court.

One things for sure: the directors of Tesco came from the west, because wise men come from the east.

December 6th – Nice to see the water level rising at Chasewater again. The Nine-Foot Pool is linked to the main lake by a balancing culvert, below the level of the main dam channel. This is replicated at the same level by a drain culvert that’s usually closed opposite. A month ago, the water was clear of the portal, it’s now over half way up. 

The depth gauge on the pier has been removed, so all I have to go on is heigh to submerged features, but I’d say we’ve gained 300-400mm in a month or so and are now about 1000mm of full. A winter’s rain will soon see that full again.

December 3rd – It was very late when I came home through Brownhills. There was a frost, and the roads, despite having gritted, were glistening in that menacing way winter cyclists know and are wary of.

I’m still rocking he new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres I fitted a few weeks ago; these revised rubbers are vastly superior so far to there older incarnation, and they’ve been excellent on wet, greasy roads. I wondered what they would be like on ice, so took them for a run up the canal towpath.

They seemed to hold the track well. Only time will tell, but so far I’m very impressed.

Watch out for the black ice folks, it’s a killer.