August 30th – Today was a great day to be zipping about the Black Country on my bike, seeing people I needed to see, The streets, the urban architecture, the market at Tipton.
It all glistened like a jewel in the sun.
I said there would still be fine days to come and I wasn’t wrong. Yet again, my beloved Black Country lifted my spirits and filled me with a sense of belonging.
These are the places I love.
August 2nd – Another summer soldier that looks superb in rain is the dog rose. Still flowering well and looking gorgeous, like the willow herb they line the paths, tracks, verges and edgelands of town and country, and I think few people really notice them.
Which is sad, because as these in Darlaston show – growing outside a disused factory – they really are beautiful.
So many unsung heroes amongst the wayside flowers.
August 2nd – Passing through Wednesbury mid morning on an errand, I caught a beautiful bed of flowers in the park. Not sure what they are, but on a grey, wet morning with very little to commend it, they brightened my day immensely.
Hope the sunshine comes back soon…
June 28th – Oh dear. A short train journey mid-afternoon, and I found myself sharing the bike space with this nice, well engineered Specialized hybrid commuter bike.
Nothing wrong with it, and it looks like a nice ride – decent tyres, nice wheels and gears – but oh my, those mudguards are annoying my snobby sense of order.
Clearly fitted as an aftermarket add-on, the spacing between the guards and wheels is… all over the place. Also, the carrier tilts up to the back of the bike, and I notice another of my pet hates: seat post mounted rear lights – easily obscured by closing or objects on the rack.
Sometimes when you see other people’s bikes, it’s hard not to whip out the tools and start fixing them up…
June 10th – I slipped out of work for the day near lunchtime, and pottered through the Black Country down the canals into Brum, then back home on the waterways to Aldridge. Unlike Brownhills, I had a mostly dry, temperate afternoon, and life is everywhere, from the lounging cat to the aggressive geese. Flowers and greenery are everywhere, and as ever, the landscape was the star.
It wasn’t a long ride at 35 miles, but the stop at a favourite Jamaican cafe for curried mutton, rice and peas and a good mooch around the architecture was good for my soul.
A lovely afternoon.
April 22nd – A rare break in the clouds saw the sun shine as I came up from the canal at Bentley Bridge on my way back from an errand at lunchtime. To left and right here, out of shot are massive scrapyards, yet running like a green vein through the centre, the canal; peaceful, tranquil, verdant.
I love the Black Country and this scene typifies the way it’s canals exist as magical green natural corridors through great sprawls of urban life.
Wonderful.
April 6th – Heading out on an errand from work late morning after a windy, wet and decidedly unpleasant commute was like chalk and cheese. Where I’d been relentlessly battered by driving rain and a headwind, it was actually sunny and pleasant as I rode down to Great Bridge.
Near Great Bridge, in a main road hedgerow, leaves are developing well. Hawthorn, beech and birch add a welcome splash of green after the grey winter months.
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 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 10th – I’m quite liking the weather this week since it’s calmed down a bit. Cooler, clearer, some great evening skies. Sunset now well after 5pm, which means I’ll soon be commuting home in the light again.
In the meantime, stood silent sentry, but buzzing with unseen data, the cellphone station in Darlaston was a beautiful contrast to the black country dusk.
It seemed to be trading secrets with that beautiful crescent moon – which, as my grandfather might have said ‘is lying on it’s back and holding rain in its belly’ – so perhaps it’s not a good sign…
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