Coventry to Nuneaton by bike by canal towpath.

THIS VIDEO
This ongoing Video Diary by myself John Neal, sometimes known as John Longcroft-Neal, as the whim takes me.

TODAY’S SUBJECT is a bike ride having collected my bike from Hawk Cycles in Coventry and riding home, mostly off road along the Coventry Canal towpath to Nuneaton.

GENERAL STUFF
I am retired from two careers of primary school teaching when I was deputy head of a Middle School and Primary School, and as a self employed Chalkboard Artist from 2002 until I reached the grand old age of 65 in 2016. Since I retired it’s like a second childhood but with more expensive toys.

SORRY BUT my website does no longer exist. Use these links below to buy my FOUR FULL LENGTH VIDEO $10.00 (approx £7.50) directly via Fastspring
1.a
’ Better Handwriting for Adults’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/betterhandwritingforadults
2.
‘More Handwriting for Adults’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/morehandwritingforadults
3.
‘Introduction to Chalkboard Art’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/introductiontochalkboardart
4.
‘More Chalkboard Art’
http://sites.fastspring.com/jwrenimages/product/morechalkboardart

I have also written a book ‘Cursive Handwriting for Adults’
published by Ulysses Press and can be purchased from:

AMAZON UK

AMAZON USA

My FACEBOOK Page https://www.facebook.com/Johnnealartist

I play guitar and write songs and have written about 14 songs for the local BBC radio station. I run a weekly (weakly) evening Acoustic session at a local pub and have been doing so for 14 years now. I also started an afternoon acoustic session in a quite large cafe in Nuneaton. Both premises were former songwriting clients of mine.

Much of the music I use on this channel is taken from epidemicsound.com free to use on Youtube for a reasonable monthly fee, and sometimes I suffer you with my own music.

Gear that I use:
DJI Mavic Mini 3 Drone.
Iphone 15 Pro for camera, generally front facing so I can see myself in frame. Super quality especially if I keep the lens clean.
Go Pro11
Gimble is a Q2 Smooth by Zhiyun, I ought to use this more often because it was expensive.
Canon G7mk2
Sony IC recorder

Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone

Rhode videomic to do voice over on computer
Video editing with Final Cut Pro X
Polarduck Mini Tripod for mobile phone. This is so good and under £10.00 I bought two.
Lamcou bendy leg tripod
Smatree Tripod / mono pod
Mono pod is a Manfrotto Compact MMC3-02 and is very useful for getting high angles that look like low flight drone shots and so easy to carry on my bike along with the mini tripod.

My bike is a e28 Estarli electric bike.

https://www.estarli.co.uk/

Money from ARTWORK SOLD will go to the MONA FOUNDATION
for details see https://www.monafoundation.org

I am a follower of the Bahá’i Faith and some of my philosophical ideas may show through in comments that I make, but, by and large, I’ll not make direct reference to my beliefs.
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/131048357093583
See www.bahá’i.org

To hear my Bahá’i INSPIRED SONGS, (and others) GO TO:
https://soundcloud.com/jrwren/sets/bahai-inspired-songs

I also enjoy gardening but lay no claims to have any expertise, and you might catch me out in the countryside of Warwickshire and nearby Leicestershire on a walk with my wife or on a bike ride.

Please comment below to inform further plans for my vlogs. I’d love to hear from you. If you don’t you will just get whatever bubbly ideas float to the surface of my slightly muddled elderly mind.

hello it’s John Neil here it’s Wednesday the 1st of May and I’m going on a bike ride but I had to Che the bus first [Music] [Music] I’ve had to take the uh buses from Theon down to the bottom of fosa road to pick my bike up because I’ve taken it down here to Hawk Cycles which have been very good by the way and uh they’ve been fixing that uh Gator that goes around the suspension which was a bit wobbly and broken and dis disintegrated completely so I’ve just gone on the bus and think great fun I don’t know why I should say it’s fun but it has been just jumped on the bus they’re very efficient actually but um I’ve got a bus pass but it’s not valid till half 9 and I’ve got on The Bu at 820 uh so but from my house into town which is about a mile was 2 and then from Nan bus station right down to here was another 2 and yet this is about 8 mil so here I am at Hawks Hawk Cycles [Music] I have to say the fellas at Hawk Cycles were excellent very accommodating very friendly and did the job for a very reasonable price too so here I am with a new suspension Gator fitted and ready to cycle home just for fun I used kamut to give me a route all the way back home which was off-road and away from the main roads as well mostly along the Canal bank well the first place I’m going to stop at is in George Elliot Street because this big house was once occupied by George Elliot and there’s a couple of signs here I’ve been here before but um some detail of what went on George Elliott being the world famous 19th century author authoress and lived in thean before moving to this house in Coventry and then on down to London before anyone corrects me it’s George Elliot Road in centry this is the uh start of the cycleway have come Offroad just a barely half a mile to get onto uh this cycle way and I’ve got to be careful it because I’m right next to the canal look as you can see this is the centry canal a leg that goes down into centry um but look the surface is great so far so we’ll just see how we get on but if it’s like this all the way back should be good and it’s not raining it’s a bit overcast and it’s not cold either uh yesterday was a lovely sunny day but we not got that today a boaty yard here look there’s undercover there to work on boats I’m not quite sure which road we are looking at over there but um it’s just quite fascinating the uh this the old history really of what was here before um and indeed these oh yeah these uh surfaces are always taken up by graffiti artists everybody loves a map in including Jim in North Carolina that’s the canal look the blue line that’s the tunnel I’ve gone under which is brand new I think relative to this new road and you can see it’s very built up and yet the uh landscape around the canal is quite green and very pleasant [Music] [Music] thank you there must be some value of uh these houses being facing the canal I think whenever you have a a house that faces water it uh UPS the value somewhat and uh yeah I suppose just a nice development of this area but it’s quite pretty the I’ll say again the uh surface is excellent along here absolutely super and uh most for a very comfortable ride very good well than whoever’s done it comy Council hello sorry are are you fol L to pick in sorry are you fol L to pick in yeah yeah we come out every week I I can see the signs yeah you’re pretty observant aren’t you I think you’re an ex detective no not really but I do I do similar at home myself oh I’m part of I’m going back to n now oh yeah and yeah we have a keep a neat and tidy page we do it bits c as well yeah big clean up yeah it’s the half it’s not bad us four of us do what well de she does a lot more than I do but she does a lot down we every week yeah I stopped off to have a lovely chat with these folk Sandra and Deb and her husband Carl with a K doing a grand job picking up litter and looking after the canal side well done folks yeah well since since you’re willing can you get can you tell me your names while you’re here yeah just your first name or do oh just dead Sandra Carl with a K car with a K love it a oh it’s silly people what they like and I’m sorry for the poor camera angle but I didn’t really want to stick a camera in their face without their permission to start with but they were lovely just spoke to the uh three vot there absolutely lovely uh lit to pick in and they were also saying they work for the Canal Trust and you can see over the way here there are some what do you call uh sausages look of uh hessan built into the banks which allow stuff to grow through them and and sorts the Bank out so it’s better for wildlife which is a good thing so yeah it’s uh it’s going well so far I’ve enjoying myself and uh really nice to see you thank you well I was talking earlier about residences being next to the canal look at this these are really nice I think they’re only Flats but um what a lovely environment for them got a few uh Ledger boats coming by in the summer be most Pleasant well done Architects and Builders are two gates here there’s a gate not quite sure what it’s for maybe somebody can tell me morning [Laughter] morning I like that concrete sofa very good I’ve got to be careful I’m riding onehanded of course and uh make sure I don’t end up in the canal morning something of a boat yard there where am I just have a look oh Cy I think I should have come off Longford I supposed to come off the canal I’ve gone wrong and this Mighty structure is the m6 Motorway going over the canal [Applause] just take note to this Swan on the nest one on the water one on the nest by the little shed look there have been a number of artworks commissioned for the canal from hawksbury Junction down to centry this one apparently is called Wings over water and it’s worth going up the steps and having a quick look [Music] and this is hawksby Junction which is a local Landmark where the Oxford Canal joins the centry canal and it is next door to a very fine Pub the Greyhound oh yeah well this is hawksbury Junction which is the junction of the canals which is the Oxford canal and the Coventry canal and uh yeah there’s a lot of canals around here so you got to keep an eye on which one’s which I’ll leave this on screen for a moment so you can pause the video and read the details of hawksby Junction meanwhile I am going to make my way along the toad path to the side of the centry canal heading towards Nan and I have to say it hasn’t had an upgrade to make it a decent cycle way at all I’m going to stop here a moment because uh as you can see the foot path is not as good as it was as a cycle way down towards centry But there again I’m following Kut well I was following Kut but I’m not anymore and it doesn’t advise you to go this way but I know it’ll be okay I’m just heading on from the bed withth area off towards Nan seems that the country is full of Rens I do have connection here because my second career as a signwriter I labeled myself as J Ren images because my initials are jrn see J Ren got it [Music] thinking about it this is quite interesting brick work and I think this looks like it might need a bit of Maintenance now what you’re supposed to be going but he wasn’t playing the game and got a bit aggressive still beautiful animal anyway well I’m approaching Nan now and I have to say give credit where you look the cycle way the foot path is much much better really around with which is rather poor but I still got to be careful and I think I’m coming off here in a minute to cut across um the roads to make my way back home so I think I will call it a day there and uh sign off so oops I’m fishermen here we go look at them rods ah we do have a swan at long last a swan of swimming so thanks for watching everybody and uh you will see me next time okay bye-bye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]