Author: BrownhillsBob

I told the truth - but told it bent. Wandering around bemused and ranty since 2007.

January 13th – The cold had really got me. I was damned ill with no energy at all. I slipped out after dark for a short loop of the canal, then came home, shivering and exhausted.

I was pleased with the shots, though, although there weren’t many on this torpid, tortured evening. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

January 12th – I came from Derby to Leicester, made a call in Leicester, back to Birmingham and then Walsall. At 4:30pm I was in Derby; by 6:30 I was in Walsall. Not bad, really.

Through my increasing aches and congestion – the cold was really clouding things now – I got the Late Night Feelings vibe in several places, and a bit of a Peter Saville in Walsall.

I love travelling. I love riding a bike. I don’t love the cold virus.

I was glad to get home.

January 12th – I found myself un Burton Upon Trent for a meeting – I’d been in Lichfield for breakfast, Burton Lunch, Derby mid afternoon and Leicester by 5pm. It was a busy, hectic day, but the railways served me well.

I haven’t had a look around the centre of Burton in an absolute age. It’s a very odd place. Some great shops, lovely people, but it seems half asleep, almost somnambulant. They have a sculpture of a Marmite bottle, as the dark goo is made there. I saw lots of odd things.

I like this place. But on this Friday, when I was starting to feel a bit odd with a cold, it felt a bit… strange. 

January 11th – Unusually, I came through the pedestrian centre of Darlaston today, and noted that the old Caldmore Accord Housing Association offices were now empty: this must surely have been a pub once, but I can’t find it on any old pub sites, so I’m a bit puzzled. The courtyard is lovely, and the Mindful Gifts shop next door is an Aladdin’s Cave.

I hope a use can be found for this lovely building.

January 10th – Sorry, more night shots. You must be sick to the back teeth of them, but I’m finding new low-light vistas opening up and it’s really turning my gears at the moment.

I crossed North Street, the umbilicus between Birchills and The Butts in Walsall, and stopped even though it was misty and cold, just to take a shot at the view from the railway bridge toward the town centre. 

This view is one of those that’s always much more impressive as a whole than one is able to capture in a photo, as it’s so wide. But tonight, I liked the light on the snaking rails, the lights from the collage and WHG HQ and the rising plumes of steam from the boiler flues.

I’d have played some more, but it was cold, and I was hungry. Som many things to try with this one. I’m dying to see what it does with a station at night.

January 10th – For the first time this year, a pleasant, dry, almost tropical morning commute; sadly, it wasn’t to last and the journey home was cold and damp with a return to mist.

Cycling up the canal over Bentley Bridge my eye was caught by a flash of verdant green – a plant of some variety has clearly seeded into the rotting cavity of an old bench, and is growing well – truly life from death.

Crossing Kings Hill Park purely to catch the day, I tried the twin sisters and liked what I saw; The clock on St. Bart’s is in fine detail and all we need is some green on those trees. 

I know it’s way too early, but come on spring!

January 9th – In Kings Hill, after many years of dereliction, I note someone has been working on the former Scott Arms pub. Like it’s namesake in Kingstanding, the once popular house had fallen out of favour and closed some time ago, becoming nothing more than a blot on a changing urban landscape.

This pub used to be rammed lunchtimes when there were big factories nearby – Servis and Exidoor to name but two; but in these days of workplace alcohol bans and with the workshops now housing, there was no business to keep this pub going.

I’d wager it’s future is probably flats, or as a house of multiple occupation, looking at the way the upstairs windows have been fitted. Whatever it is, I doubt the Scott Arms will ever serve ale again.

January 9th – Oh my, what a gorgeous puss this one is, a garden wall sentry in the Butts, Walsall.

Uninterested in me until I called, it was watching human proceedings down the street. An impressive neighbourhood presence, I suspect someone loves this one a great deal.

I think the cats must be emerging out of frustration. I later saw, but was unable to photograph a black puss hunting on the wasteland at Bentley Mill Way. I’m not used to seeing cats this active in the dead of winter.

Welcome though. Most welcome…

January 8th – Again, handheld shots. This camera is amazing for this – and I’m noticing the daylight shots are pretty good too. Sorry, I’ll stop prattling about cameras soon, I promise. but it’s a long time since a piece of tech has had this much of an impact on me.

It was an absolutely evil commute home – the suck this season seems to be still petering out and there was some absolutely awful driving going on, and a constant drizzly mist that I believe it’s fashionable to call ‘mizzle’. It searched out every not quite done up zip and pocket. I was soaked, cold and unhappy.

As I came through Walsall Wood the lights and mist interacting with each other fascinated me. I’m not a huge fan of the Walsall Wood pithead sculpture, as is fairly well known, but in the mist and football training floodlights, it looked eerily impressive this evening. 

As to the footballers, their dedication was impressive. It must have been horrid out in shorts.