February 24th – And nature, she kept trying thought out the end of my journey.
Outside the place I was supposed to be an hour previously, this single yellow solitary soldier was the first of it’s cohort to wake from spring on the bank opposite the bike shed.
I felt proud and pleased for it, it’s comrades still in bud.
It made me much, much happier.
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February 24th -On Stafford Park, Telford after a thoroughly awful commute nature was doing it’s damnedest to cheer me up.
It actually succeeded. How stunning.
And the rain had stopped, too…
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February 23rd – Chasewater Country Park is currently astoundingly wet. The reservoir has overtopped now and is sending a continuous deluge over the weir and down the spillway into the Crane Brook culvert.
The network of creeks and ditches across the heaths are all swamped, and pools and huge puddles are on every trail.
Even the old mine spring that normally trickles a red, rust-tinted flow of water through the marsh at the foot of the dam is flowing pure and clear through it’s gap in the trail concrete block that acts as a crossing.
This is going to take a very long, dry spell to restore to normal.
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February 23rd – A blustery circuit of Chasewater was hard work but enjoyable. My fitness is returning but the wind – enough to whip up spume on the reservoir – was making life very difficult.
The skies were good though, and when the sun came out, there was perceptible warmth on my face.
I guess we’re all just waiting for better days now.
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February 22nd – Something that has got steadily worse over the wet winter has been the imminent collapse of the canal embankment bear the Pier Street bridge. Much of the wall here has been rebuilt, but the older section here has been tilting for years, caused no doubt by the creation of the mound on the common adjacent, settling and pushing it over.
At the moment the angle is perilous and I doubt it will be long before the brickwork gives – it won’t be disastrous but will require a lot of work to fix.
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February 22nd – On a potter to Brownhills, despite the awful weather spring is clearly getting on her throne with fine displays of blackthorn and other early blossom.
These trees by the Pier Street Bridge in Brownhills are putting on a fine display. In late summer there will be a fine crop of bullate and sloe here.
I get the feeling that nature is just waiting for a spot of good weather then everything will explode into leaf…
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February 21st – In the wind and withering of a horrible Friday night commute, I crossed Bentley Bridge in Darlaston Green, and stopped to answer a text. looking to my left, I thought the cherrypicker lifts in the yard down the canal looked almost prehistoric in the way they caught the yard lights.
Years ago, this would have been a busy canal, with Garringtons drop forging factory either side – the narrows still visible in the distance where there was a drop bridge between the two yards.
Today, it was much cleaner, and quieter, apart from the wind and the sound of rain on the canal.
How times change.
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February 20th – Despite yet another foul day, the flowers of Kings Hill Park in Darlaston have decided the time is ripe and are putting on a thoroughly gorgeous show.
Miniature diffs, crocuses and snowdrops mingle, with the full size days getting ready for act 2, followed later by the fantastic tulips in the planters.
With such resolve to being beautiful, one can really lift the sadness of another day of bad weather.
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February 19th – I don’t find myself in Digbeth much these days, but on my return from Sparkhill I had a quick spin around the Custard Factory and creative quarter to admire the street art and giggle at the hipsters.
When the Custard Factory opened as an arts Centre in the 90s it had a very slow start, but over the subsequent three decades it’s developed an inertia and community of it’s own, with businesses here selling vintage and fashion clothes, art, art materials and all kinds of stuff like that – punctuated by fashionable cafes and business places for startups.
The art here is indeed stunning and the atmosphere fascinating and engaging. It’s like a world within, encased as it is in industrial, backstreet Birmingham. The surrounding grit seems to reinforce the impression of a down at heel but humming artist’s quarter.
Another place I must return to when I have time.
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February 19th – In Birmingham for a meeting, I found myself at the top of Moseley Road where it meets Highgate Middleway, and I noticed a building that’s stunning, yet I can’t recall every studying before.
It’s the Birmingham Friends Institute, and when I have more time I shall take a closer look. It’s still a busy community hub and centre, and is architecturally stunning in that busy, late Victorian Gothic urban style.
An unexpected find on a grey morning. Utterly charming.
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