Tag: Brownhills

January 5th – Errands in Brownhills before a well-deserved evening with good friends found me dashing up The Parade in Brownhills. I notice there’s been a lot of work done here on the north of Holland Park by Walsall’s countryside services team. One of the things they have done is to cut down the scrub and hedge that screened the former cricket club car park from the road. Previously, it was a haven for antisocial behaviour and other mischief, but thanks to a bit of lateral thinking, now it’s not a place to hide.

Just one of the small, but significant things a busy team does to make lives better. Well done, folks.

January 2nd – I rounded the bend towards Brownhills, and the overflow near the Pier Street Bridge caught my eye. Only a few days ago, this was a raging torrent, flooding the land behind, struggling to cope with the downpours that had constantly filled the canal. Tonight, it was quiet, a relative trickle. The land behind was still saturated, but draining, slowly. There was very little sound. I thought about it for a while. The transitory nature of the water, about beginnings, endings and direction.

You see, today, It was the end of 365daysofbiking. I started this odd mission on April 1st, 2011, after being cajoled into it by fellow cyclist Renee Van Baar, originally only for 30 days. I enjoyed those 30, and resolved to do a whole year, but last new year I was very ill indeed. I missed two days laid up, and returned to the bike on the 2nd of January 2012. So, the mission is now complete, but I have cycled all but two days out of 21 months.

I’m quite proud of that, but more later. Is this where the story ends?

January 2nd – So, back to normal. The festivities over, Christmas decorations down, the rain, just for now, gone. This time last year I was struggling to ride at all. This Christmas has been a little odd: very little riding for the sake of it, and fearsome bad weather. I’m hoping for a better new year; maybe we’ll get a proper summer this time, not just warmer rain, although on the canal in Brownhills, early evening, early January, it was warm, clear and dry. Perhaps it’s a good sign.

December 31st – I returned to the top of the Black Path in Brownhills, where I’d accidentally found the flooding on the previous Saturday evening. This time I had a decent camera and could record the fact that, stood in the middle of the pool, was a lit and working street light. I suppose the connection point is above water level, but even still, it seems remarkable. The remainder of Holland Park still seemed rather waterlogged too.

I’m hoping now for a period of stable, dry weather to dry things out a bit. Wonder if I’ll be lucky?

31st December – A few folk have noticed these two wreaths tied to the central barrier on the Miner Island in Brownhills. Fellow local blogger Warren Parry asked about them yesterday, and I said I’d check them out. Passing today, they appear to have no labels. I have no idea what they’re relating to. 

Can anyone help? A small, sad mystery. 

December 29th – It all went a bit Pete Tong. I left home late – the weather had again been dismal – in the dark, and had somewhere to be, and very limited time. Bereft of inspiration, I headed up to the A5. The wind and drizzle were vile, truly vile, and then I realised I’d forgotten my camera. This left me with the task of attempting night photography, without a tripod I could use, on a phone camera. Great.

As it happened, it wasn’t too bad; I got reasonable results with the rail plant yard at Newtown, and some Christmas lights on a house near Deakin Avenue. Then home beckoned. I spotted the flood at the top of the Black Path too late. Wonderful.

Actually, huge parts of Holland Park were under water. Is this rain ever going to stop? I returned home, sodden and grim, cursing my forgetfulness.

December 23rd – The Christmas spirit has taken a while to arrive with me this year. Nothing unpleasant, but with the dismal weather and concentration of work it’s been difficult to focus. Spinning back home tonight to Brownhills from Cannock Chase, I spotted this boat at Catshill in Brownhills. I love it and it made for a very unexpected breath of festive cheer…

December 19th – I wasn’t out long. It was just too unpleasant. But one place that does look nicer and nicer – particularly on a chilly, dark night – is The Swan, on the Pelsall Road. Saved from almost certain loss, the pub survives – and thrives, by all accounts – as a traditional, no-nonsense family and community boozer. No frills, just good beer and good company.

And that’s all you need, really…

December 19th – I was hoping for a cold, dry Christmas. It seems it’s going to be another warm, damp one like last year. Today was pretty grim, and I left it until after dark to take in a grim loop of Brownhills.

You guys over in Chasewater Wildlife Group… you doing the rain dance. You can stop now, it’s OK. Honest…

December 15th – There’s nothing like being prepared. Parked up outside Tesco, Brownhills in the wonderfully impractical bike racks, I came out to find another steed sensibly locked to the trolley store. The bike was a fairly nondescript Apollo (Halfords) bike-shaped object, but was absolutely loaded with panniers and bags. In the water bottle cage, a can of Wilkinson own-brand WD40.

There’s nothing like being prepared…