January 5th – Passing through Walsall in the morning, winching myself up Bradford Street, I was reminded of what a fine and idiosyncratic place this is architecturally. At first glance, this place doesn’t seem to offer much merit.
But look closer. Look up.
It’s why I love Walsall.
January 4th – Still, once I was wet there was no point in not enjoying the environment. I keep playing with this view of Clayhanger Bridge from the canal. Today, I used the bike light to highlight the railings and overflow. It seems to have worked but would have benefited from a tripod.
One day I must set out to learn what I’m doing with a camera.
January 4th – A wet commute both ways; not full on rain, but periodic drizzle. It was a clingy, cold kind of wet that soaked you without actually doing much.
Fed up of the traffic on the way home, I hopped on to the canal at Walsall Wood – a real mistake. Everything is saturated, and the mud and puddles are endless.
January 3rd – A late, wet spin around Brownhills after another very, very wet day. Thankfully, I had a huge amount of paperwork to do for work, so at least I didn’t feel so bad about missing a decent cycling day.
Brownhills was wet, dank, and once again, oddly warm. I hardly saw a soul, and the only sounds were my wheels squelching through the puddles and of water flowing endlessly into drains.
I think I’d be better at this rate flogging the bike and starting 365daysofcanoeing…
January 2nd – This awful weather is accumulating crud on the bike, and on me.
I think I might have to break the habit of a lifetime and hose the worst of it off. I don’t think I’ve ever known a winter like this.
January 2nd – This is the fourth year to the day of continuous cycling. As of today, I’ve ridden a bike every day for 1461 days. I can’t believe I’m still doing this, that I’m still here today.
Of course, the fifth anniversary of the blog comes on April 1st, but the first new year of this journal (2011-2012) I was very ill and missed two days, so I started the counter again.
It’s been a long way, but I’ve enjoyed it, and still do. If you’re still up for it, I’ll continue, but if this is tired or dull now, tell me.
Of course, it’d all be a lot more interesting with decent weather, but it was very poor again, with continuous rain for most of the day. It stopped briefly, and I nipped out on errands. As I passed by Walsall Wood Bridge, a narrowboat passed beneath. In an impetuous moment, I wondered if I could catch it from the other end as it approached Hollanders Bridge.
Turns out there was bags of time.
January 1st – New Years Day 2016, and the weather is so unseasonably temperate that calendula are flowering on the verge in Barracks Lane, just at the Warrenhouse, near Brownhills. And they aren’t the only thing.
I welcome the colour and cheerfulness, but this can’t be right, can it?
January 1st – This is… extraordinary. I came upon it out of pure, unbridled nosiness.
As you travel down the Chester Road from Shire Oak towards Stonnall, just within the boundary of Fishpond Wood and the old quarry, there’s a gated track.
As a kid, I was told there were cottages down there. Having seen a building on Google Earth, and occasionally seeing people pull out of the driveway, I paid it no mind.
But in recent weeks, there has been a pile of flytipped refuse in the track gateway, containing structural asbestos. I was wondering how the people here were accessing their house and if it was still lived in – I could vaguely remember seeing bins out for collection here, but not for a good while.
Passing the drive, I took a dive down there on my bike. It’s long, downhill, maybe ⅓ mile. With a large, derelict house at the end. A house once worth over half a million pounds.
It has clearly only been vacated in recent years, and is a rambling, oddly extended place with a wish-mash of extensions and levels, with one of the most bizarre fireplace arrangements i’ve ever seen. in it’s day it was clearly some place, but not now. Now, just vandalism, decay and eerie loneliness.
It turns out from subsequent research the place is owned by a developer, after the elderly couple who lived here vacated the place. Permission has been granted since 2013 to replace it with a large, new family home.
You can read about this, and some of the backstory in this Design & Access statement from the Lichfield Planning Department here.
Right now, it’s clearly a vandal magnet, and a target for flytippers.
A very curious thing indeed.
December 31st – Well, another year gone under the wheels and it’s not been a bad year. My health has been generally improving, and we didn’t have a bad spring and summer. The autumn was spectacular, and just this wet, oh so warm and wet winter has been wearing me down.
This evening, drenched and wind-battered at Catshill Junction, I stopped to reflect.
Despite the webbed feet and permanent patina of mud and wet grit, I feel happy I’ve seen it trough – coming very close to four years of cycling every day, and a few months off five years from when I started this journal.
I didn’t get in as many long rides as I planned, but commuting has been consistent, and I’m still enjoying being part of the environment that surrounds me. And all the way I’ve had you guys along with me.
Happy new year to you all – lets hope for a dry new year. May there always be wind at your back, sun on you face and speed in your wheels.
Here’s to 2016, and the return of the light.
December 31st – Remember the peculiar fungus I found a few weeks ago on Clayhanger Common – the Rosy Earthstar? Well, today I passed the same spot again and stopped to have a scout around. It seems that there were a whole bunch of them here – now the leaves have gone and the undergrowth is less dense, it can be seen there were at least 25 of these remarkable fungi.
Interesting too to see how they go over, seemingly with the ‘petals’ of the star rotting away first.
Hope we get them again next year and this wasn’t just a fluke. I’d love to watch them grow.
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