Author: BrownhillsBob

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

March 22nd – Nature is well awake now. Spring has come too far to turn back. The days are warming up, lengthening out and feeling better all the time. The most important thing, though, is that the flowers have appeared. All over our area, early oilseed rape crops have smatterings of yellow bloom, magnolias are reaching for the sky and daffs dance in the breeze. All around nature is just crying out for your attention…

March 22nd – These are the first spring lambs I’ve spotted this year. Escaping from a meeting in Aldridge mid-afternoon, I lost no time in heading over to Canwell, Hints and Hopwas. These furry bundles of fluff were in a field near hints ford. You can’t beat an afternoon nap in the safety and warmth of your mum’s fleece. 

March 21st – Brownhills churchyard cemeteries are a disgrace. The grounds maintenance here is, quite frankly, appalling, and something I’ve noted before. What annoys me most in that the memorial garden currently in use has ridiculous rules enforced strictly about what folk can leave on memorials, apparently to maintain the appearance of the churchyard – yet relatives, who’ve paid a considerable fee to have their loved ones interred here – have to suffer untidiness, uncut grass and mud. This is a scandal, pure and simple. This is where an awful lot of Brownhills folk are remembered – it it too hard to show them the respect in death they deserved in life?

March 21st – I hadn’t been up Brickiln Street in Brownhills for a while. I was quite surprised to see the old library is still standing – it’s been empty ever since its replacement in the Parkview Centre, Brownhills opened a few years ago. I’m sure I read a local councillor was campaigning to have it removed; certainly, the council have been trying to flog the land for a while. The building is boarded up, and the grounds locked.

It fills me with sadness, really, as I spent years here, as a kid. That small, dull building held everything I needed for a while – peace and quiet, headspace, and a world of possibility, learning and dreaming.

In there now is probably the ghost of an awkward young lad, chin propped on his hands, reading the local planning list, some map or the latest Bernard Ashley. That building – and what it held – had a huge influence on me. 

March 20th – More sunsets. Sorry, it’s just how it is right now. I tend to be out on my bike at sundown. The canal looked gorgeous and I loved the reflections. The rooftops, chimneys and TV aerials of Clifton Avenue, just off the Pelsall Rood looked good, too.

I guess the repetitive sunset thing will be solved come Sunday and the return of British Summer Time…

March 20th – I came back from work as dusk was descending, but the light was interesting and I dived onto the canal in Brownhills. On sheer impulse, I hopped up the embankment onto the old railway line behind Pelsall Road. I note someone has finally blocked the hole in the old bridge-deck over the canal. That hole has been there for at least three years, probably longer, and I was dreading someone might fall through it into the water below. Repeated calls to the authorities failed to get any action, and I have no idea who did this, but I salute them. I suspect it’s linked to other acts of grounds management on the commons locally – I note on the old railway trail, new guard fences on the Clayhanger Lane bridge and a lot of scrub removal. Top job, well done.

As I trundled along the trail in the dark, with lights turned off, the local, old dog fox sat looking at me for a while. He seems to recognise me. Eye contact for 20 seconds, then he turned tail and trotted off down the trail. 

March 19th – Returning that evening after visiting both Telford and Redditch in the same day, I emerged from a decidedly windswept Blake Street station and headed homewards. Traces of the previous day’s remarkable sunset were still evident over Little Aston church, but the oddly keen wind made the going difficult. Spring is certainly here, but it can still be decidedly wintry at times.

March 19th – Back to work, and off to Telford. It was a gorgeous, bright but frosty morning. My chosen station of departure, Shenstone, looked as beautifully rural as ever. Despite having nor real facilities and problematic accessibility – only steps on the northbound side – it remains one of my favourite local stations. It’s usually quite easy to get your bike on the southbound train here, too,  A real joy to travel from.

March 18th – The work at the southern end of Chasewater dam is very near completion. Again, the security had been breached so I swung back to Brownhills along the canal. It’s nice to see that the minor overspill culverts have had grilles fitted over them, like this one at the rebuilt Nine-Foot pool. They were enticingly child sized and I was concerned that some inquisitive urchin might get stuck… I’m looking forward to the dam opening again, even is there’s still no water.