BrownhillsBob

January 8th – Off to work on a miserable, grey and cold morning. I hit the canal in Walsall to avoid the morning crush hour and was accosted in Pleck by a very cross character demanding food. Sadly, my supply of corn was in another jacket, and the swan who was so aggressively begging showed it’s displeasure by repeatedly pecking my feet.

Of course, the swan was not starving, but urban swans are very lazy and accustomed to the high life, and when loafing in ice-free swim holes near bridges on cold days, they have little better to do that harass passers by for tidbits. I suspect the policy works best on passing mothers and fathers with children, whose guilt twanged, will come back with food.

The ice itself wasn’t severe. Moorhens and coots skittered about on it, but I doubt it would have supported the portly resplendent girth of your average drake mallard.

On the wonderful Dru Marland Canal Ice scale, I guess it was somewhere between IC2 and IC3. Check Dru out here: she’s wonderful.

January 7th – In order to reclaim something from the ride, I headed via Whittington to Lichfield, for if there’s one place that makes for good night photos, it’s Lichvegas.

Once again, the Canon gave a good account, and I’m loving this camera as a low light device: These images are handheld despite some seriously odd quirks in the hardware ergonomics – why on earth would you have an exposure compensation control on the same central axis as the mode dial, committed in hardware? Often you unintentionally skew exposure compensation changing mode by accident – an awful bit of design.

The camera has a very yellow response to even high pressure sodium lights, which is interesting, but it works remarkably well under white LED street lighting and T5 fluorescents.

Whittington Church is hard to get a good angle on, and that subway in Festival Gardens, Lichfield, fascinates me. I wonder how old it is? It’s construction would suggest 1920s or 30s.

January 7th – It was a very cold afternoon as I set out, not feeling 100 percent. Black ice lurked in the country lanes around Stonnall and Shenstone, but I felt secure on the ice tyres. I pottered through a very decent golden hour and pressed up through Weeford to Whittington as a very frosty night fell. I was cold, my shoulder was aching, and in the dusk, I suffered a puncture.

It wasn’t a bad ride though, and I did enjoy it on the whole. After all, it was still fairly light at 4:30pm so the night really is on the run now.

There was that, at least.

I noticed that the Ivy House in Shenstone had had some love since I last looked a few years ago and now was looking in excellent condition after several decades of neglect. That’s a huge, rambling house. I bet it’s interesting inside.

January 6th – Meeting this fellow in Pier Street was a shock. Of course, I’m assuming it was a fellow, but this large puss had a very male disdain for my very existence and was clearly wishing I’d go away.

In the winter months it’s a joy to meet a cat out and about rather than curled up in the warmth and this one, despite the face, obliged me by tolerating it’s picture being taken.

I do hope we meet again on friendlier terms.

January 6th – Getting better with the Canon. Actually beginning to like it, which is something I thought I’d never say. That’s a bit sad, as the TZ100 is clearly a cracking piece of kit too and deserves further exploration. I think in a week I’ll take that out exclusively and learn about it.

I was in Brownhills late, collecting a takeaway. Brownhills was quiet, sleepy and I had the peace and quiet to try again at some shots I thought I’d fudged before. This camera is odd – it really isn’t that great at Morris, as the zoom isn’t there I think, but the classic Anchor Bridge night scene was a boster. I also liked what it did with the Commutiy and Parkview Centres.

Brownhills at night has some really great pictures. Get your camera out and explore.

January 5th – First day back at work in 2018 – more working weeks should start and end on a Friday.

I enjoyed the ride to Darlaston, I’d missed the daily commute, and the shoulder seemed OK with it. I also popped through Kings Hill Park and noticed something.

Jack in the Green has tapped the ground with his cane, and called the snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils on.

Roll on spring.

December 4th – Returning home, I had to visit a mate in Shire Oak, and on the way noted that the problems with pooling water at Anchor Bridge were bad again, after a fair few yeas of being trouble free.

I also noted that the Anchor pub was looking very welcoming these days, with a well-lit exterior that really makes it look warm, cosy and inviting.

No time today, sadly; maybe another day.

January 4th – In Birmingham for the sfternoon, it was a good chance to fiddle with the new cameras: both gave a good account of themselves.

As regards the Canon, I discovered I had indeed broken a setting – it has a hardware dial for exposure compensation which I’d inadvertently adjusted, making my pictures dark.

Birmingham itself is still doing what it does best – changing. The Brutalist treasure that is Alpha Tower seems forlorn and distraught before the demolition of the last part of the Conservatoire and Fletcher’s Walk, and new buildings are springing up all over the city centre.

But it’s the quiet urbanity and light that charms in Birmingham most, when night falls. I still love this place with all my heart, but I’m getting to the point where I don’t recognise whole parts of it anymore.

January 3rd – Returning to Brownhills, there was a lovely, low sun at lunchtime so I visited the row of trees that make for such great autumn pictures during the leaf fall.

It’s fair to say they look totally different undressed, but no less beautiful.

Every time I see these, I can’t help but remember the when I was a kid, I remember these saplings being planted.

Oh, how that makes me feel old…

January 3rd – I was being watched, and I had a feeling this particular ball of floof didn’t care much for me at all. In fact, it looked positively hostile.

I was heading up to Walsall Wood on an errand, and I saw him in a canalside garden at the back of Lindon Drive, just near Catshill Junction. On the far side of the canal, I was in what must have been forbidden territory to the cat, and I’ve often wondered what canal cats make of life on the bank they can rarely get to.

Make no mistake, this is a stunning puss with gorgeous eyes. Someone loves this fine feline dearly. I just think he wanted to end me.

Still, nice to see a cat in Winter. Bit of a rarity at the moment…