The first of these for a while…Manchester Art Gallery.
Manchester Buildings
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The perfect evening for a ride…
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It’s still summer!
I spent today with Crewe & Nantwich Conservation Volunteers at Wybunbury Moss working for Natural England. The Moss is one of the group’s usual haunts and this visit was the first for a while. Soon it will be time for bonfires but today we spent our task clearing undergrowth that had encroached on the boardwalks around the outside of the Moss.
Before…
After…
The weather was perfect with bright blue skies and warm sun making the approaching autumn seem a long way off. In fact, with a chiffchaff singing in the woodland, it seemed more like late spring than late summer.
Whilst we often volunteer at the Moss, we usually don’t spend much time out on the central part of the Moss itself. It’s out-of-bounds to the public due to the danger of falling through the thin peat surface into the lake below. Today, however, we had a walk around this part of the nature reserve and it doesn’t stop giving the feeling of being in the wilderness miles from anywhere. Despite being close to the village and overlooked by one or two houses, the Moss has an atmosphere of the northern wildernesses – all that’s missing is a bear or moose.
When the trees growing on the Moss get to a certain weight, their roots fall through the peat layer into the lake and they drown. This action has left a number of standing dead trees and they make wonderful photographic subjects (although the shot below isn’t all that great).
A late summer gathering…
After being off exercise due to an injury, tonight was the first time in a week and a half that I had the chance to go out for a post-work cycle. For the last few days we have been blessed by a the Spanish plume that has brought warmth to a late summer and the air was still well above 20 degrees when I went out.
Part way along my route I came across a busy gathering of swallows lining up on the telegraph wire, waiting to start their autumn migration southbound to Africa. I tried to get a picture of all of them on the wires but each time a car came along, they all took off.
Red sky in the morning…
…it’s going to be a hot one (according to the forecast).
This is why I bought a hybrid..
…warm summer evening cycle along the nearby towpaths and riverside.
It’s just a pity that there’s not much summer left!
Sun halo…
…at the end of a cycle on a perfect summer evening.
Okay, it might be faint but there was an unmistakable halo around the setting sun this evening.
The picture was taken above Wybunbury as a paramotor came in to land.
A bike for pootling
This week I took delivery of a new steed – a hybrid bike.
Whilst I do have a mountain bike, it’s no longer fit to ride, so for a long time all my cycling has been on my road bike. However, I fancy having the option to have a change of pace from time to time; rather than racing around the roads, I want the choice to have a more leisurely pootle in the countryside. I also want to do some utility cycling, that is cycling for local journeys rather than sport/leisure cycling and I want a more comfortable bike to take on holiday so I can cycle around new areas rather than driving everywhere. A hybrid bike seems the perfect answer.
Hybrids bridge the gap between speed focussed road bikes and pure off-road mountain bikes. Mine, a Specialized Crosstrail, is closer to a mountain bike than road bike with front suspension, disk brakes and fatter tyres. I made this selection as I wanted to use it both on and off road; being able to take it off road gives me a greater choice of routes and enables me to get away from the circuits I would usually do with my road bike. I particularly want to give towpath cycling a go as there’s quite a good selection close to where I live with the Trent & Mersey, Shropshire Union and Llangollen all within easy reach of home.
Yesterday I gave the new bike a first proper run out and headed into Nantwich and onto the Shropshire Union. I pedalled north until the junction with the Llangollen where I turned west and cycled out to Wrenbury. I then joined the local country lanes, passing through Aston and almost getting into Audlem before heading north and back onto the Shropshire Union to travel back into Nantwich.
Riding along the towpaths certainly gave me some new views to take in and the journey was more relaxing than my usual cycling. The only issues I came across were the lumpiness of some of the paths, which made riding a bit uncomfortable in sections, and walkers getting in the way. I tried to be as courteous as possible, they have right of way after all, and I used the bell each time I approached a group. However, it seems that people have forgotten what a bike bell sounds like and on a few occasions they didn’t connect the sound of a bell to the possibility that a cyclist might be wanting to get past – one couple even thought I was a chicken! It seems that cyclists need to use them more and walkers need to be a little more aware their surroundings.
I have to say I wasn’t sure cyclists would be welcome on the canals. Cyclists are allowed to use towpaths, most of them are permissive paths rather than rights of ways, and a permit is no longer needed (see Canal & River Trust website) but I got a big range in reactions as I travelled. Some people completely ignored my ‘hello’ as I passed and appeared unhappy that I was there while I had long conversations with others, interested in where I was going.
After yesterday’s first trip, I couldn’t stop myself and went out on the tow paths again today – a shorter route on a different section of canal but just as nice and a bit less lumpy. So far, so good – I can’t wait to see where my new bike takes me next.
Flying Ant Day
Stafford Beer Festival
Yesterday I made the 20-minute train journey down to Stafford to go to the town’s beer festival.
Small but well-stocked would probably best describe it. The festival had been running from Thursday so I expected when turning up on Saturday afternoon, the last day of the event, that there would have been a shortage of beer. However, unlike other beer festivals that seem to start running very low remarkably quickly, there were very few ‘sold out’ signs when I left at 7:00pm (despite my best efforts!).
The school sportshall in which the festival was held was nicely laid out with local beers, and perries and ciders, on one side and national beers on the other and plenty of leaning posts in between. I got stuck into quite a few, favouring darker beers as usual, but there were also some nicer best bitters and lighter, more summery brews – although the 10% bitter I tried last would tempt me back!
The music made quite a change with a local brass band playing for much our the afternoon.
The only bad thing about the event was the weather – nice, warm and sunny – so it seemed a bit of a pity to spend the day inside. However, this might be another event to keep in my diary for next year.
Daft Mumblings 