Tag: beautiful

March 7th – I don’t often ride through The Butts in Walsall, although it’s a lovely place. The tightly packed streets of traditional terraces are lined with parked cars, and any ride through this fascinating place is marred by conflict with other traffic, which is a great shame as I miss scenes like this.

Stopping to wait for my companion caught up further back, I looked up Borneo Street to see a perspective sunset, perfectly replete with TV aerials, chimneys and the ghostly white LED street lights.

I could really love this place, were it not such a challenge to cycle around.

March 7th – Meeting a friend of the train at Walsall to ride home together, the sunset was vivid and beautiful. This isn’t the most handsome of stations, trapped in the red-brick late 70s gap been brutalism and the utilitarianism of the 80s, it’s functional and a decent place to get a train or wait. 

I don’t know why, but I love this place at twilight.

March 2nd – That old British adage ‘If you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes’ was never truer than today. I’d nipped out of work into Moxley on an errand, and the heavens opened – not with rain, as it had been periodically most of the morning, but huge, huge snowflakes. 

I wanted to enjoy it. Riding was impossible as it was blinding. It was also rather wet. I took refuge in a cafe, ordered a brew and something to eat, and sat by the window until it cleared, just watching the snow fall.

Within 90 minutes or so, there was no trace it had even snowed. I wouldn’t have missed that for the world. There’s something very loose, transitory and impermanent about the weather of late. Not sure I like it much.

February 28th – Over the road at St. Anne’s Church, the architecture fascinates me. This is a building with a fantastic history, being the first church to be lit by electric light in the UK, powered by the coalmine down the hill, presumably in the interests of a mine owner’s place in heaven. But there is so much more to this industrial, engineering brick church, that looks so unassuming from the road.

Oh, the brickwork! I have never seen a church so obsessed with geometry in it’s design. Bright, bold, almost childlike… zigzags, mirror curves, crosses, diamonds, bands and profiles dance and decorate. It’s a constant delight and I spot something new every time I look.

If you can, please go see this wonderful building for yourself.

February 25th – Passing through Mill Green on the way to Sutton early. The sun was up, but there was an ethereal mist and a cold, frosty feel to the countryside.

A beautiful start to the day – I’m full of cold, and should really have stayed home today, but if I had, I’d have missed this. And that would have been a tragedy.

February 18th – I passed through Lichfield just at the right time and had time to get this classic Lichfield shot. I think every local photographer has done this one at one time or another, but you really can’t resist such a gorgeous sight.

Lichfield, for a relatively flat place, does have some beautiful views.

February 16th – Not neglected at all, and a wonderful place to be right now is Kings Hill Park in Darlaston. Regular readers will know this place needs no introduction or explanation, and at the moment it’s alive with spring flowers – Daffodils both large and miniature, snowdrops, crocuses and primroses. And still, it’s only the middle of February.

If you have time, get up here soon. It’s a joy to the heart, and just the restorative I needed after the awful sight of Corporation Street Cemetery.

February 15th – A few weeks ago I was recording this view at this time in darkness. The twin sisters of Wednesbury looking beautiful in the cold evening light of a winter sunset.

I love this view and never tire of it.

It was just about light until I got home – soon I’ll be travelling in the daylight again. This makes me very happy indeed.

February 2nd – Kings Hill Park in Darlaston is a real treat at the moment, for the miniature daffodils, crocuses and finally snowdrops are in flower.

Spring has come already and it’s only the 2nd of February.

In all my days, I’ve never know daffodils and crocuses beat snowdrops into bloom. These past couple of years have seen some crazy seasons.

To see these flowers was a real joy to the heart.

January 28th – After the recent warm, damp weather, a quiet wind, and cold and clear sunrise as I headed down through Mill Green, I’ve been very lucky with sunrises in the last few months, and it’s good to se them.

A beautiful sunrise holds wonderful promise for the day ahead; it makes you happy inside, and in these generally wet and grey days, a bit of beauty is so very welcome.