Author: BrownhillsBob

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

November 5th – Oh, and this. Up on the Chase at Rifle Range Corner, a wee accuracy error.

Most of the fire gates on the chase have their OS grid reference stencilled upon them. Helpfully, my bike GPS also give me a grid reference. 

Checking with a paper map, they’re wrong, not the computer.

That’s a bit regrettable…

November 5th – Returning via Longdon and Burntwood, the moon, rising through a cloud of firework night fug, was a lovely orange colour while still low. From a fence-post in Cold Well, it didn’t make a bad image. Apparently it was a super moon or something, but every moon seems special these days, and I hanker for the days when we just had a normal moon that was just as beautiful but few noticed.

Crossing the M6 Toll at Brownhills this time, I was interested in the way the lights caught the smog, but the photos didn’t turn out so well. The change to LED lights on the toll road has certainly made it more ethereal at night.

November 5th – It was very cold compared to recent weeks (although merely normal for the time of year) and overnight rain had drenched the landscape. But the light was good, the sun was out so nothing for it but to head up to Cannock Chase.

The forest is at it’s absolute best right now. Get your boots on and get up there, people.

November 4th – As is traditional on a weekend where bonfire night falls on a Sunday, the annual firework binge took place on Saturday. But as I crossed the motorway bridge on Mill Lane in Great Wyrley, I decided to experiment with long exposure photography, having totally forgotten the firework display about to take place.

This is an otherwise unremarkable spot in a semi-urban, inhuman scale landscape, which at night, comes alive. This evening, my companion and I found it very special indeed.

November 4th – On an errand to Great Wyrley and Cannock, I took the backlanes to avoid the madness of Churchbridge. Across the grubby, semi-urban fields of Little Wyley, buzzards settled in trees and on wires and not a soul around to witness the most red, beautiful sunsets.

An unexpected moment of great beauty.

November 3rd – Of course, if you’re heading towards Priorslee, Stafford Park or Hortonwood it’s always a fair old uphill, that does thankfully break under the motorway bridge. But it’s a pleasure to ride, even on a dull autumn morning. The colours and beauty of an otherwise unremarkable urban cycleway are a joy to behold.

November 3rd – After a spring and summer of waiting for something to start, the 80s footbridge that links to two sides of Telford Station with the nearby retail park and town centre is finally being removed and replaced.

Some details seem off. There’s always been a ramp down to access the Staples store over the road, but now that will not apparently exist and a pedestrian crossing has been installed over the slip road. I’m also concerned about the ramp arrangement on the Shrewsbury-bound side of the station.

It has to be said though, replacement is desperately needed. The bridge, although appearing disabled-friendly is not; there are no braked in the inclines and negotiating it in a hand-propelled chair requires strength and skill. 

The bridge supports have now been fenced off and it’ll be interesting to see how this project develops.

November 2nd – Further on my way to work, I caught something out of the corner of my eye n a patch of roadside verge grass. On the neatly mown turf were lots of one of my favourite toadstools – the delicate and very short lived Japanese Parasol. With a delicate crinkled cap no larger than a two pound coin and a very slight stature, these pretty little fungi will be gone without trace within a day.

These are a wonderfully fragile, transient beauty and I’m so glad to have seen them this year.