November 6th – As I’ve noted here before, I very much like Darlaston’s war memorial. Intimate, sombre and peaceful, it sits in its own sensory garden, a little oasis of calm in the middle of a Black Country town.
On this grey and foul morning, it cheered me as I passed, so I decided to record it for posterity.
I’ve never noticed the bench with the poppies on before. Wonder how that came about? It’s very beautiful.
November 5th – At Telford, two mysteries, one easily solved. On my journey I often pass a budget hotel, the rear of which is visible from the cycleway. On top of a cage surrounding what looks like air conditioning and refrigeration plant, a bicycle. It hasn’t moved for a year or more, or at least, it’s been there every day I’ve passed by. I’m wondering if anybody has actually noticed it from the hotel, or if it’s just a really secure locking space?
And then, the bike shed at the place I was visiting. Normally I have a job finding a space on sunny days. Today, only the hardcore mountain biker guy has rode in. And it looks like he got a wet arse doing so.
No mystery about fair-weather cyclists…
November 5th – Off to Telford, and another wet, warm commute. That wonderful autumn has come to a very soggy, miserable end. I stood on New Street watching the people, signals and trains as the drizzle softened the light. I must have spent hundreds of hours waiting here over the years. This station is in my blood like the traffic fumes and air of the city, and although I hate the state of it, and what’s been done to it, I still love the place.
I find as I get older my relationship with urban spaces is getting more and more complicated. These are still my places, but I feel much more ambivalent about them now. I’m not sure I like it.
November 4th – These are interesting little brown toadstools. I haven’t a clue what they are, and I’m curious. They are growing on the canal towpath near Bentley Bridge and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before. Can’t find them in my book of fungi, either.
Anyone got any ideas, please?
November 4th – In the afternoon, I again passed by these fascinating berries I recorded last week. Thanks to the genius of Susan Marie Ward, I can tell you that they’re actually a type of crab apple.
Yes, you read that right. A gosh-darned crab apple.
Read about this fascinating shrub here. Nature is amazing sometimes.
Thanks to Susan for that.
November 3rd – The commutes are not being good to me this week. Yesterday was foggy and damp; the journey in was OK, I suppose, but the journey home was in steady, persistent rain. I’d had to call in at the Gallagher Retail Park by Junction 9 on the way back, and when I left B&Q it was raining heavily. Nothing for it but to don waterproofs and go for it.
The traffic was mad, as it always is in the wet, dark evenings. I got soaked. But at least it was relatively warm.
I could do without this, to be honest…
November 3rd – intrigued to note that the Kings Hill Methodist Church in Darlaston is still undergoing extensive work to convert it to flats 12 months after the conversion started. This is clearly no cheap, quick fix – the work has involved relining the roof, with all the tiles removed and replaced, skylights added, and I was pleased to note today all the lead stolen from the front gables had been carefully replaced.
It’s been fascinating to watch this transformation and I’m keen to see the results. What I thought would surely be some bodge has turned out to be respectful, skilled and so far, very sensitive to the original building.
Meanwhile, the metal poppies in the railings of the adjacent park are a wonderful touch, especially at this time of year.
November 2nd – The mist and horrid weather continued throughout the day. Patchy, it would be relatively clear one moment, and quite dense the next. Commuting was a challenge – it’s amazing to see people driving and riding around in these conditions without lights.
Fog is horrid to ride in. It drenches you and gets into your clothes and hair. It’s cold, and the extra vigilance it requires is mentally exhausting on a long commute.
Hope it clears up soon.
November 2nd – A hard commute to and from work, but I wasn’t the only local whose activities were restricted due to fog.
This buzzard, hunting curtailed by the poor conditions, was loafing off the Mellish Road in Walsall.
He looked well fed.
November 1st – Gentleshaw Church, like that of Kings Bromley, shows something that I think deserves wider attention, but makes me somewhat outspoken.
Victorian architectural hubris wrecked many fine churches with utterly horrible extensions – sadly an abomination that went on for another century.
(I know the extension is 1903 – but it was planned in the late victorian period).
There, I said it. What was the architect thinking here?
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