#brownhills

[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking On the skyline:

Thursday 13th January 2022 - Crossing Chasewater on an errand I’d deliberately held back until sunset, my studied tardiness was rewarded handsomely. 

Chasewater is the best place locally to catch a sunset, and the gull roost was massive with thousands of birds too, so the spectacle was twofold. The deer were out on the North Heath and obliged beautifully.

I’ve said this many times and I’ll continue to do so: This place is beautiful. But you have to want to see it, and actively go look. Had I not had one eye to the skies I’d never have seen this.

There’s nowhere I’d rather have been than here, this night.

This journal is also on Wordpress, where the pictures are in higher resolution and the search box works! Click here.

[madoldbaggage]

Sunday 26 March 2017

Becks Bridge Brownhills

First cycle ride for 6 months. Winter has been bad with bursitis, vertigo and other problems. It was good to be able to blow away the cobwebs and hopefully to no ill effect.

[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking Defying gravity:  

Sunday January 31st 2021 – Some trees have a property, and it’s mostly, but not exclusively oak trees - that they do not drop lair leaves when they die off in autumn.

Instead, the tree keeps the leaf attached, shedding it the following spring.

The behaviour is called ‘Marcescence’ and scientists don’t really know why it occurs. It may be to protect leaf buds from browsing animals like deer, or to faster recover nutrients from the dead leaves by absorbing them back into the tree directly, rather than through the soil.

Whatever the reason, it’s very curious.

This journal is also on Wordpress, where the pictures are in higher resolution and the search box works! Click here.

[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking An annual treat for the initiated:

Saturday February 20th 2021 – Just north east of Chasewater dam, behind the houses that were once the mine managers, there’s an early spring spectacle every year that’s a must see for the initiated - the annual snowdrop glade.

Sadly, in all the vears I’ve visited it, I’ve never caught it on a sunny day.

But even on a dull Saturday, these carpets of what must be tens of thousands of tiny white wildflowers are stunningly beautiful, on land that was formerly industrial.

And visible from here, people pass by on the dam and nearby footpaths without realising the beauty they’re missing not 50 years away.

It’s just a secret for those who know...

This journal is also on Wordpress, where the pictures are in higher resolution and the search box works! Click here.

[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking Pushing on:

Thursday March 4th 2021 – Home again, and a chance to catch the sunset on the exercise ride. 

It was an interesting one: A decent sky colour, but not terribly dramatic. I took lots of pictures, but it looked best from the canal at Catshill over the trees.

I could feel maybe a little - just a little - warmth in the air and warm long days are not far away now. For now, I’ll keep pushing on into the dusk, and think longingly of them.

These things, like good sunsets, get me through.

This journal is also on Wordpress, where the pictures are in higher resolution and the search box works! Click here.

[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking Misty for me:

Tuesday March 2nd 2021 – I was at work, and ended up working late. It’s really curious how working from home seems to mean you often doing pretty much  the same hours in work, just squashed into less days...

I was heading home weary on a chilly night with a barely perceptible mist of the kind that catches street lights and renders a ghostly hue upon familiar scenes.

As I hopped off the canal at Anchor Bridge, I noticed it through the trees, and capturing it was irresistible.

This journal is also on Wordpress, where the pictures are in higher resolution and the search box works! Click here.

[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking All things must pass:

Monday January 11th 2021 – Life is grim in the UK right now: The pandemic is claiming higher and higher numbers of people every day, and the economy is taking sustained hits from it and Brexit. It’s taking superhuman levels of self discipline to be able to just listen to a radio news bulletin.

But all is not lost: The darkest hour comes before dawn and the vaccine is being distributed quickly and professionally. It’s nice to see science working so well.

In the midst of all this I ride my bike to and from work as usual, in an often alienating world of masked up, hostile fellow citizens. Some days it feels like normality will never return.

But it will, and the spring flowers know it. Jack in the Green has tapped the ground with his cane, and everywhere you look fresh green shoots are optimistically shooting skyward, in anticipation of the warming spring sun.

They know like we must all  know deep down, that these cold, grim days will pass. And so they will.

This journal is also on Wordpress, where the pictures are in higher resolution and the search box works! Click here.

[brownhillsbob]

#365daysofbiking First:

Wednesday March 31st 2021 – Sorry for the grainy phone photo, but I found something on my way home tonight on Clayhanger Common that always fills me with joy.

First cowslip of the year.

I know cowslips will never win any wards for complexity or outstanding beauty, but these humble members of the primrose family are so gorgeous, and herald the spring like no other flower.

Coming as the daffodils fade, they assure you that summer is indeed on its way, and when I was a child, were very rare in these parts.

Thankfully, due to declining weedkiller use, improved habitats, and guerrilla seed scatterers like me, Clayhanger Common and other grassy areas are now awash with this wonderful wildflower.

Seeing the first one of the year is always a joy to the very soul.

This journal is also on Wordpress, where the pictures are in higher resolution and the search box works! Click here.