March 6th – Bloody hell Bob, not crocuses again!
Yes, crocuses. After the months of riding in dark, damp and cold, the brightness of the first spring flowers to me is magical, enchanting, life-affirming and beautiful. Like a hot shower after a long sleep, it’s awakening and you could enjoy it forever.
These are in Walsall Wood High Street, and remain, as every year I see them, a credit to those who planted them.
Thank you.
March 4th – Spring is really here. It’s not just the yellow crocuses in Kings Hill Park now, but the purple and white ones, too. Daffodils have joined the party, and the whole place looks gorgeous.
I know the daffs are early varieties, but they are gorgeous and a reminder that once the genie of spring has appeared, you can’t really get it back in the bottle.
Such a joy to the heart.
March 4th – A beautiful day, but still windy. The golden light of spring shone its benevolent best over the canal at Walsall, and it felt good. What was really impressive was that I saw the Pleck kingfisher again – well, actually kingfishers, as one seemed to be seeing another off the territory near the Scarborough Road bridge. I couldn’t get the camera out in time to take a picture, but there was no mistaking the twin cobalt blue flashes. They both seemed to go for cover in the trees somewhere in the bottom picture.
Interestingly, I rode the canal through to Goscote on the way home in the light, too, and saw one there. It’s clearly a great year for these beautiful little birds. I hope I get a good picture of one soon.
February 19th – Snatched quickly whilst stopped at the lights, on the commute home 13 hours later. The ring road in Walsall is almost deserted, and it’s raining. Everything is wet, and colours blend and blur in the night. I’m tired. My eyes are sore from fatigue. But the wind was behind me, it was pleasingly warm, and to see the beauty of the wet, urban kaleidoscope was a minor but tangible joy.
February 9th – Noticed in Darlaston today, as I passed, so excuse the quick, rough photos. How fabulous is this? A normal terrace house porch, but tiled, with gorgeous deep-glaze tiles, which look original, and minton tiles on the floor.
A gorgeous flash of brightness on a very dull day. Can’t think why I’ve not noticed it before. Although not present in any of the other houses, I’d say this was original and the only one that remains in the row.
February 8th – Up at Chasewater, another sunny but hazy afternoon. The atmosphere was lovely, but the trails and cycleways were very, very muddy and the going quite hard. The deer didn’t seem to mind though, and a small group were on the wettest part of the north heath clearly enjoying the marsh.
February 7th – I nipped down to Lichfield in the afternoon for some shopping, and it was still cold, but at least the wind had dropped. Minster pool looked terrific and glass-flat on an otherwise very overcast, misty day.
Lichfield can look good on the dullest, most dreary afternoons.
February 4th – We’re in the season of great sunsets again. Caught on the way home, a glimpse over the black country of an old-style GSM transmitter in Darlaston. I love the contrast of the lattice-work tower with then sky and streetlights behind.
I don’t know why, but I love this sort of stuff – radio towers, pylons and suchlike. They can be so beautifully elegant, and so often derided and overlooked.
January 31st – A sunset return on a very cold evening, with little energy. I came from Burntwood with leaden limbs, but the wind behind me; the combination of sunset, street lights and traffic made me think of the cover of Green on Red’s ‘Killer inside Me’ – beautiful, but hard.
I found it so hard, I hopped onto the canal, and wound my way on that back to Brownhills. I couldn’t deal with my tiredness and the traffic.
January 28th – And this is the thing with Darlaston – it takes your breath away. It was around 5:20pm, not yet properly dark, and the view through Victoria Park over the mystic bridge was just superb.
I’m a Brownhills lad, through and through – but I do love this place too. It has heart, and soul, and surprising corners when you get to know it. Just like Brownhills.
These are my places, and here my heart will always lie.
Thankfully, the camera got its act together for this one…
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