Tag Archives: Coventry

Top Five from 2023

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The PistonHeads.com Photography Forum had a thread to share your favourite photos from the previous year, in this case, 2023. As it is usually your “top five” photos, I chose five and also decided to share them on my blog, as I have done in previous years.

This was my favourite photo of Henry, taken when we were in Peebles on our Summer Road Trip. Owen had not been feeling very well and did not want to go out, so I took Henry for a walk to the park. The colours on this rocket worked well with Henry’s t-shirt.

I could not have a favourite photo of Henry without one of Owen too. I took this one at a friend’s barbeque in the summer, whilstt is not technically perfect, I liked how the colours of the bubbles work with Owen’s shirt and draw your eye through the image.

I do not do much “street” photography, but enjoyed the Coventry Photography Meetup group photo walk at the War Memorial Park. This was the only photo I was happy with from the morning, but I am still really happy with it and it made it worth it. Even the 5:30 alarm!

Another photo from our summer road trip, this time from our final stop in Saltburn-by-the-Sea. As we were finishing up our dinner, I could tell that it was going to be a good sunset, so I rushed back to the flat we were staying in, grabbed my camera kit and headed back down to the beach. This was my favourite photo from that evening – and I took a lot! It was almost totally dark by this point, but that meant I could use a long shutter speed to blur the sea.

I managed to shoot more mountain biking last year, including three downhill races at Stile Cop, this was my pick of the images that I shot at the most recent race, in December. It was the first outing for my Fujinon XF 50-140mm f2.8 lens, and it was a good job I had it, as my old lens would have really struggled in the woods on a rainy December afternoon. Of all the shots I got during the race, this was my favourite, you can tell that the rider is fast, and their red kt stands out from the dull background.

Mushrooms of Coventry

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The other week most of the photographs I took were of mushrooms, both in my local woods, and on bike rides around the city. The first ones, were a mountain of mushrooms in the “fairy village”, I had noticed them on a previous bike ride and thought it would be worth returning with the camera.

Whist photographing the mushroom mountain I noticed a tiny baby mushroom growing out of a log – I needed to use the macro extension tubes to get close enough. It is hard to tell the scale from the photo, but the lush green plants surrounding the mushroom is actually moss. The mushroom was less than one centimetre high.

After I got back from my photo walk in the woods, I went out for a bike ride, taking my X100V along in my rucksack. I am unsure if it is the weather, or if I am more attuned to seeing mushrooms, but they seem to be everywhere in the woods at the moment. The X100V is not the best camera for this type of photography, but it is the best one that easily fits into my bag.

Later on in the week, I went back to the woods with Owen and Henry, Owen was excited to see the mushroom mountain by the fairy village. It was even bigger than when I photographed it. Henry was just happy to be messing about in the woods, but I managed to get him to pose for about three seconds. Unfortunately I was too slow to capture my friends from Godiva Trailriders who rode past us on their Saturday morning ride.

War Memorial Park Sunrise Photo Walk

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I am not a morning person, or should I say, I am not a getting-out-of-bed person. On the rare occasion, I do get up early, I love it. And today was one of those days. The Coventry Photography Meetup group had arranged a sunrise photo walk in the War Memorial Park – starting at 6:00, and as the forecast was due to be nice first thing, I set my alarm clock and joined them. Unfortunately, the weather forecast lied – it was a grey morning, but not quite misty enough to be atmospheric.

The first frame I took was of these daffodils in front of the war memorial, the flowers added a well-needed splash of colour. Moving down towards the skatepark, I switched to my 55-200mm lens, as there are usually plenty of squirrels there. I got a few photos of them, but 200mm is not really long enough for wildlife photography – I feel like it is a good jack-of-all-trades lens, but not really great at anything.

However, when the sun eventually popped out from behind the clouds, my eyes were drawn to the backlit tree at the edge of the park, and the 55-200 was definitely the right lens for the job. To make the image I knew I would just have to wait for someone to walk (or ideally ride their bike!) along the path into the frame. Even better was a jogger, his visible breath showing how cold it was, adding to the story. I knew straight away that this would be my favourite shot of the day (and is the shot at the top of this post). A few minutes later a cyclist rode past but the light had already gone.

Henry’s February Half-Term Holiday 2023

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At the end each term, Henry’s nursery set him (us) homework, to share a few photographs of what he has been up to over the holiday. Owen also had this homework when he was at nursery, but I did not think to share the photos on my blog. As it is a nice recap, I have decided to share them.

This picture is from our family ride at Hicks Lodge – Henry did so well riding the blue trail.

Photo: Bob Craik

The boys stayed with my mum and dad in the Cotswolds, and took a trip to Cogges historic farm.

On the way back (sort of!) from collecting the boys from my parents house we called in at 417 Bike Park for Henry’s first visit to “the barn of dreams”.

Photo: Jennifer Craik

Whilst I was photographing the Cannock Chase Winter Classic mountain bike race, Jen and the boys rode their bikes up to the playground at the local park.

Henry’s October Half-Term Holiday 2022

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I thought that as Henry started pre-school at Owen’s school, we would no longer have his holiday homework of sharing photos of what he had been up to during his holiday, however pre-school have asked us to do it too. So once again, as I have collated the images anyway, I figured that I may as well post them here too.

I have already shared this photo in my recent post about our walk in the woods, but it is one of my favourite photos of Henry, so sharing it again!

The main part of Henry’s half-term was going to Norfolk with my parents (and Owen). We went to collect the boys, and I took this photo at the park where they were staying. We also went to the seaside in Hunstanton and had fish and chips at “Henry’s of Hunstanton“.

Jen had taken Owen to a birthday party and the plan was that I would take Henry swimming, but neither of us fancied that – so I took Henry to the bike trails in Bedworth. They are the nearest man-made trails to our house, and have a gentle loop that I thought would be perfect for Henry on his pedal bike. He warmed up with a few laps of the nearby skatepark on his balance bike, but then he told me we could put his balance bike back in the van and that he would ride the trails on his pedal bike.

Henry did not like the look of the roll-in at the start of the trail, but as it was quiet he could sneak around it and start on the flat. Initially, he was not too confident and pushed his bike around for the first half lap, but when I said that I would get some photos for his teacher he was keen to ride. After I got some photos I followed him round the track. He was so excited, saying, “I did it Daddy, I love it” – a proud dad moment for sure! Then he kept going round the track, telling me off if I dared to stop taking photos.

Day Off Ride with Owen

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Yesterday, was a teacher training day at the boys’ school, and I woke up looking forward to a day at work, as I had an interesting little project to complete – however, upon checking my calendar, I realised that I also had the day booked off! After double-checking that I really was not meant to be working, the disappointment was quickly replaced by thoughts of “where should I ride?”. Jen and the boys had plans in the afternoon, so it was tempting to ride by myself, but I had not ridden with Owen since falling off at Northampton Bike Park, and I had taken Henry to the trails in Bedworth the day before, so I thought it best to ride with Owen.

Given the choice of a few local places to ride, Owen just wanted to ride the skatepark at the War Memorial Park, where we go most weekends. So I switched things up – we would ride there! Owen did not take much convincing to take a longer route, via a fun trail alongside the Kenilworth road. Which I had handily pre-ridden the day before. There were a few road sections, but all on quiet roads and we were past the rush hour. I know that Owen is sensible when it is just the two of us out on bikes.

The fun part of the ride starts at pretty much the furthest point from home, especially when you add a detour to see the ducks at Warwick Uni. It is also the highest point, so we stopped for a snack before hitting the trail. The run down the first few sections was fun, albeit slower than I am used to. Owen coped admirably with the natural trail conditions – he is more used to purpose-built trails, and the leaves hiding roots and other obstacles added to the difficulty. Luckily (or more likely due to global warming?) the trail was not too muddy yet, so he did not have that to cope with. About halfway down, just before we crossed Cannon Hill Road, we stopped for a photo break, as I really liked how the leaves on the ground matched Owen’s jersey (that he chose when we were in Wales the previous month). One benefit of not being on a dedicated mountain bike trail was that I could get Owen to ride the “wrong way” down the trail to get better light on the photo.

At the War Memorial Park, Owen conquered the wet grassy bank that had caught him out on a previous visit, learning that knobbly mountain bike tyres are much grippier on wet grass than smooth BMX tyres. The mountain bike was also easier to roll down the ramps at the skatepark. I was disappointed to find that the new ice cream shack, opposite the skatepark was closed – I am yet to see it open. Owen wanted to ride straight back from the park, so we went along the road, through Earlsdon, then our regular route along Hearsall Common, through the woods and down the “Co-op Hill”. The ride was almost 16km – one of Owen’s longest. After the ride Owen had a busy day – a play date and a Halloween party. I had an afternoon of life admin, somewhat spoilt by my van not starting, which also happened on a day off earlier in the year.

Summer Solstice Walk

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Yesterday was the summer solstice – so I decided to go out for a walk with my camera, with a vague idea of capturing the sun going down for the shortest night. I was walking between Coventry and Balsall Common and could not find an interesting view to the west. However, I did like this shot of a lone tree in the golden light.

Usually, on a warm summer evening, I would be out on my bike, but with my knee still not right after my ride to Hatton, I have been enjoying getting out for walks with my camera instead.

Henry’s Christmas Holiday 2021

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At the end each term, Henry’s nursery set him (us) homework, to share a few photographs of what he has been up to over the holiday. Owen also had this homework when he was at nursery, but I did not think to share the photos on my blog. As it is a nice recap, I have decided to start sharing them.

On my last Friday “Daddy day” between finishing my old job and starting at the new one, Henry and I went to Cannock Chase. It was meant to be a Little Rippers Meet, but that did not quite work out. I thought that Henry would really enjoy the new play trail, but he had his own agenda. I did get him to do a few laps of the “Butterly loop”, including riding this skinny. Technically, the photo is not great, but I like his expression.

On New Year’s Day I took the boys for a welly walk in our local woods – it was so muddy, but we needed to get out of the house. Henry likes posing in this tree.

Henry enjoyed sitting at Jen’s piano, he would play us a tune (well, some random notes) and sing along. He is really starting to show what his particular interests are. Hopefully the piano/music is something that he will continue with.

Henry and I had a few rides out in my MR2 Roadster, he seems to be turning into a right little petrolhead at the moment and made a few requests to “go in the sportscar” and who was I to argue?

A Special Bike Ride Behind the Hospital

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Just over five years ago I remember looking out of the window of the neonatal “Transitional Care Unit” at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, holding a very small, and slightly yellow, baby Owen. I said to him “one day we will ride the trails out there” – today was that day!

He was probably ready to ride the trails a while ago, but we had never got around to it. I decided that it would be good to do it before the weather turned and it got too muddy. We started from Binely woods, taking the bridleway across to Combe Abbey Country Park – partly to avoid paying for parking, but mostly because it is a nice ride through the woods. Jen and Henry even joined us for this part of the ride but stopped off at Combe Abbey for the playground. Owen and I carried on past the hotel, through the woods and out the back of the park. For some reason I have it in my head that the bridleway out the back of Combe Abbey is really steep, I had even brought the tow rope to help Owen, but it was not needed. He climbed the hill with ease. From the top of the hill, we were able to look down over the hospital. I told Owen how small he was, how he had been in hospital for almost three weeks and that I had told him we would ride up there together. He did not seem to bothered by it all but humoured me with a selfie with the hospital in the background before we rode back to join Jen and Henry at the playground for ice cream.

We ended up having a lovely family afternoon out – the boys were on good form and the weather was lovely. It is hard to believe that it will be October next week! I would not normally consider 9km, on easy trails, to be a special ride, but I had been looking forward to this for most of Owen’s life, so it was nice to get it checked off.

Another Attempt at the Godiva Trail Riders Lockdown Challenge

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During the lockdown at the start of 2021 the local mountain bike club, the Godiva Trail Riders created a challenge segment on Strava to encourage local riders to get out and push themselves during the lockdown. I had three attempts, and as mentioned in my post about it, my goal had been to complete the 13km, mostly off-road, loop in less than one hour, but only got down to 1:06:30 before the lockdown ended.

I was confident that with drier trails, riding my hardtail and the lure of a Five Guys burger (from their recently opened restaurant by the finish line) at the end I could beat my target time. However, life got in the way and it was only in September that I was able to have another attempt. The first part of the loop, out of the city centre, felt busier than earlier in the year, but I think that helped me pace myself, rather than setting off too quickly like my previous attempt. I also took the slightly longer route up the ramp from the tunnel under the ring road. On my previous attempts, I had ridden up the stairs, arguably more impressive, but ultimately slower. I was feeling in much better shape as I rode over the railway and through Spencer Park. However, the place I noticed the difference the most was riding up the Fletchamstead Highway towards the Kenilworth Road – I expect that the choice of bike, and tyre, that helped the most here.

Heading into the second quarter of the loop, which is arguably the hardest, I knew that there was a slight change to the trail, which cuts out the boggiest section. Unfortunately for my normal riding, it is also the most fun section, but for this ride, speed was the priority. At the top of Gibbet Hill, the halfway point of the ride, a quick time check showed I was five minutes ahead of my goal. So I allowed myself a minute resting before dropping into the fastest, most technical section, down the hill towards Wainbody Wood. This is probably my favourite trail in Coventry, there are a series of small jumps, a “north shore” raised wooden section. I was particularly proud of myself on the lap of Wainbody Wood, as rather than slowing down and riding around a tree stump on the trail, I hopped over it without slowing down. I noticed that this, mostly off-road, middle section of the loop was much quieter than during lockdown – I barely saw anyone.

With time in hand I was feeling confident until I popped out of the woods by the A45 and saw that the next bit of pavement that I needed to ride on was closed for roadworks, this was annoying for me, but would have been much worse for a wheelchair user, or someone walking with small children! I had to deviate from the route and join the main carriageway of the Kenilworth Road. I think the roadie next to me at the traffic lights was surprised to see a mountain biker shoot off so fast when the light turned green. Annoyingly he sat right behind me, which combined with the queue of traffic, due to the roadworks, meant I could not turn on to the trail I needed, and took a detour via the Coat of Arms Bridge Road to rejoin the trail and carry on the final push to the city centre.

When I got back to Lady Godiva, I checked my watch to see that I had taken roughly fifty minutes to complete the loop, seventeen less than in March and well under my target of an hour. It was time to get that burger!

I had left my bike lock locked to the bike rack, so ordered my food on the app and popped into the restaurant to collect my reward! I could not have been in there for more than ten minutes, but when I came out I noticed that the rear tyre on my bike was completely flat. Not wanting to let my burger get cold, I sat on a bench overlooking the bike rack and enjoyed my celebratory lunch, whilst pondering how my tyre could have lost all the air. After my burger, I noticed the end of the valve stem on the floor, and as I was pondering if I could have knocked it when I locked up the bike, a group of students came over and said that they had seen someone with a metal bar levering at my bike! My only guess is that they hoped that by immobilising my bike I would leave it there until town quietened down. Rather than risk that happening I pushed my bike all the way home. I had thought about buying a tube in town but figured that I could probably walk home quicker than fixing my bike.

After that disappointing end to my ride, the final kick in the teeth was that Strava did not recognise that I had completed the segment! After comparing the GPS traces, it was within the first 16% of the segment – before any of the diversions. My only assumption is that it was down to worse GPS coverage with leaves on the trees. However, working on the basis that the time for the official competition had lapsed and that I know I beat my target with plenty of time to spare I am going to call it a success. I also set nine “PRs” on Strava, so in addition to my celebratory burger, I am treating my bike to some swanky Muc-Off tyre valves Amazon affiliate link, to replace the broken one.