February 28th – Returning from work mid-afternoon, with shopping to fetch, I came through Aldridge. Just opposite the Manor House I spotted these rings of crocuses planted around young saplings, themselves strongly in blossom. The sight and intensity of the flowers was a tonic, and the blossom beautiful in its delicacy.
Spring? This’ll do.
February 27th – I’d had a tough day at work, and just wanted to get home fast. I wasn’t in the mood to faff about, and got the first train I could in the right general direction. That turned out to be the service that terminated at Four Oaks. It was a cracking ride home – dry, clear, crisp – a great spring evening. The sunset wasn’t outstanding, but it was pleasant in it’s starkness, and Castlehill looked as beautiful as ever in the half light.
What intrigued me most, however, was growing on a small patch of neglected flowerbed alongside the access ramp at Four Oaks. Violet flowers, looking a bit like poppies. Just the one small group in an otherwise weed-srewn border. Anyone any idea what this delightful flower is, please?
February 27th – That moment when you’re passing through Moor Street Station in Birmingham – the lovingly rebuilt and restored Great Western Railway station – and realise that even the washers used in the architectural ironwork are an ornate stamped flower design.
That, readers, is attention to detail. Never noticed it in 10 years of using the station…
February 26th – It was beautiful as I returned along the canal. The sky was dramatic, and although not a great sunset, the dying embers of the day were still quite beautiful. And the best thing about it? 5:45pm. We really are pushing the darkness back now. I’ve really enjoyed the last few commutes in the relative dry, and it’s nice seeing the ground and countryside dry out a little, finally.
I want this to be spring. It’s mild. The weather is good. Just 3 weeks until we switch to British Summer Time. But I can’t get away from the fact that on the 22nd March 2013, there was deep snow on the ground.
We’re not out of the woods, yet.
February 26th – The technology of controlling public spaces fascinates me. Footfall monitoring systems, environmental control and public information screens all have their own complex theories and rationales. Even something seeming as simple as a public adress system is complicated in the implementation.
At Birmingham New Street, the public announcements, if one listens carefully, are not relayed universally through every speaker, and there is often a slight timeshift between two announcements on adjacent platforms. The volume of the PA rises and falls locally based on background noise levels measured automatically by a number of units like this, buried in the fascia of the station walls.
I noticed this one this morning as I waited for my train. I thought about how tuned the system must have to be – to echo, resonance, and the synchronisation must have to be just so.
What results are hopefully comfortable, easily heard announcements, that don’t clash and collide with interference from multiple speakers as you move around. This is clearly a very, very sophisticated system, and I’d love to know more about it.
February 25th – Caught in a short, sharp shower. The air suddenly went clear, and glass-hard. The traffic seemed to go a bit nuts, too.
Despite it’s attempts to kill me, I love the Chester Road. Night or day, summer or winter, sunshine or rain, it’s both often my route out of here, and my way back home.
February 25th – Terrible pictures grabbed quickly in the half light… but cause to celebrate. My daffodils are here. Spring is underway!
These early ones come every year at the end of February. They grow on the verge corners by the cottage at the junction of Wood Lane and Chester Road, Mill Green. They are showing beautifully this year, after being a little sad last year.
They fill me with joy. I spotted them a couple of days ago, but have had no time to stop and photograph them. I say hello outloud, every time I pass. They are my signal to hold on, because the greening is coming again… and not a moment too soon.
February 25th – First time in Tyseley for a while. Leaving in a mediocre golden hour, I was reminded of the view from Wharfdale Road, and it caught my breath.
Somewhere over the terraces, chimney pots and quiet suburban streets, there’s my city. Right there.
February 24th – The huge marlpit at Stubbers Green that feeds the Weinerberger brick plant with raw clay is impressive. These extraction processes are not as simple as just digging a hole. The pit is dug in a pattern decided by engineers to ensure safety and drainage. In an impervious material like marl, accumulated water from the elements and surrounding environment is an issue to contend with. Here, a floating pump on a bouyancy raft made of empty drums returns water to a surface lagoon. Roadways and access tracks crisscross the site.
Extraction didn’t seem to be in progress when I passed today, but excavators load huge trucks with the red, surprisingly dry material, which is conveyed to the plant on the far side in an endless chain. The factory was running, however, as I could smell the distinctive note of baking clay in the air.
Although ugly, and many consider it a blight, this is a factory and facility that provides much employment to the local area, and the bricks produced are good quality. I find it fascinating in scale and procedure, and could look into that void for hours.
One of the fascinating aspects is looking at the rear face, and seeing the subtle colour changes in the clay as the geology yielded its secrets.
February 24th – Headed home mid afternoon after an early start, I did what I usually do at such times and came though Aldridge to avoid the mania of the school run traffic. Zipping along the canal, just by the overflow in Aldridge, a tiny clump of four beautiful purple crocuses. They were the only ones I could see, and stood quite alone. I wondered how these harbingers of spring came to be here; but it doesn’t matter how, just that they were. And I saw them, and their existance made me happy indeed.
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