January 25th – A horrid day. A stomach bug, too much work to do, bad weather and a migraine that kept coming back when I thought it’d finished.

The daylight was headache grey and the night wet and very dark. I spun out early evening, trying to clear my head, to no avail, but I did feel a bit better for the exercise.

This month seems to have been so long, and so very, very wet; I despair of ever seeing the town light, aired and dry again. I rode the high street, Hussey Estate and looped around Clayhanger. I barely saw a soul.

Ravens Court is particularly grim these days. So many promises, and so much talk, yet it still stands, rotting. I love Brownhills with all my heart – I really do. But today, my lack of wellbeing, the weather and the endless dark made it hateful, tense and forlorn.

January 24th – Chasewater is still in overflow. This fascinates me – there has clearly been a deliberate decision to let the lake overtop the spillway rather than open the valve and let it flow into the canal. This is interesting, as had the water gone into the canal, the canal would have overflowed into the same culvert system, which feeds the Crane Brook. I must take a look at the crane brook when I can to see how it’s affected.

The flow from the breakwater is moving along the floor of the spillway, and into the new culvert system under the Victorian outfall. I guess that’s helping to irrigate the marsh there (as if it needed it, but you never know).

Exactly the same happened this time last year. Perhaps it’s some kind of stress test. It does mean however, that the two narrowboats moored in Anglesey Basin remain quiet on the relatively still canal…

January 24th – Speaking of rubbish… On the way to Chasewater, I noticed this discarded inner tube in the scrub on the canal embankment at Ogley Junction. I found this depressing, particularly in light of the previous post. A synthetic tube like this won’t biodegrade, and will present an entrapment hazard to wildlife. It was clearly replaced for another, so why toss it? Put it in your pack and take it back home.

The same goes for your bottles and wrappers. You brought it with you, please take it back.

The scumbags who do this really piss me off. One of the joys of cycling is the environment. What’s the point if you just foul it with your own rubbish? Arseholes.

January 24th – I was out with the birds, and came home early afternoon. I hopped on the canal near Aldridge, and headed towards Chasewater, where I wanted to see if the lake was still in overflow. On the way, I noticed business was brisk at the Highfields South Landfill, just between Walsall Wood and Shelfield. The site seems to be being filled in three sections, and the one closest is currently being covered in hardcore. Gas is being tapped off from the mound and feeding a generator set connected to the mains, so at least the gas isn’t wasted.

Every time I pass this hole, it’s a bit fuller. Five days a week, trucks disgorge their waste here – things we daily throw away and never wish to see again. The trouble is, we’ll run out of holes in the ground soon. Our rubbish really is becoming an issue – and who wants a landfill nearby?

January 22nd – First time in Tyseley for a while, and I’m still in love with that view and sunset. As I left work – in the blessed light, how things are improving – the soft light of the oncoming dusk cast a lovely soft orange glow. The sunset was still good by the time I reached central Birmingham too. 

Today, it felt that perhaps the spring wasn’t too far away, after all.

22nd January – In Birmingham, I was intrigued by this venerable old Claud Butler well locked up outside Moor Street station. When this was new it would have been a very expensive bike indeed – the brand was considered the Rolls Royce of bikes back when I was a lad, but not so much now. This seems fairly true to the original, too; down tube shifters, tight angled quill stem, lugged steel 501 frame and cotterless cranks.

This is clearly a favourite ride for someone, and looks like a well loved and well ridden steed. It’s also a remnant of a great cycling tradition.

January 21st – Here’s a thing. Continuing my somnambulant, bleary-eyed journey to Brownhills, I passed through Walsall Wood to pick up a takeaway. As I approached the canal bridge in Walsall Wood, I noticed we have a new Screwfix opening soon.

Screwfix sell tools, building stuff, hardware and the like. Since Focus went, we’ve not really had anywhere to get a good selection of tools and fixings locally, so this is good news.

I welcome this new store and wish it every success.

January 21st – It’s not kicked off to be a good week. I’ve had a ton of work dropped on me, and the railway system seems to be in a permanent state of entropy at the moment.

I left work in Telford late, having tried all day to solve an ostensibly simple problem, without success. Riding back from Walsall, it was wet, but drier and warmer that the previous morning. 

Tired and ground down, I remember little of the journey home, as often happens, but I did find this image on the camera I don’t remember taking whilst stopped on red at Rushall Square. 

I’ve had enough of the dark and wet days. I need to move into the light.