#365daysofbiking Light work:
December 10th – Christmas means it’s time for the annual Christmas light inadequacy moaning game.
They’re never enough. Not Christmassy enough. Where’s the tree? and other festive traditions.
In reality, we haven’t had a tree in Brownhills for years, and actually, I think this year’s lights – which appear to be new – look pretty nice.
I think it’s coming on Christmas, folks.
#365daysofbiking Decent exposure:
December 9th – As darkness fell, I pulled myself up and decided to find a decent photo opportunity or two. The pedestrian bridges over the Chasetown Bypass are always good, and the Canon G1X really comes into it’s own on the long exposure work.
The crescent moon over Catshill doesn’t bode well for the weather, though – mum always said when the crescent was on it’s back, it was holding rain in it’s belly. I hope she’s wrong.
My unusually distorted shadow caught under Middleton Bridge arch from my bike light was an oddly serendipitous thing, too.
Grim days are what we make of them, I guess. Never was that more true than today,
#365daysofbiking Darkness my old friend:
December 8th – Speeding around a wet, sleepy Brownhills is always strange. I feel almost invisible. Rolling up the canal to Pelsall was lovely, but very soggy.
I love the lights of the Watermead Estate at night, and the effect they have on what would otherwise be an utterly dark canal.
Sometimes the darkness isn’t so bad. I’d always rather be riding in the light of a beautiful spring or summer, but as Judy Collins put it ‘Sometimes the darkness is your friend.’
#365daysofbiking First Christmas:
December 8th – Busy with stuff for work, and moving this journal to a better, more secure host; but on a quick spin around a darkened town I noticed many of the residents of the new houses alone Silver Street and The Moorings now had Christmas lights up.
It must be a great feeling to light up your new home for the first Christmas there.
I welcome you all to Brownhills. Merry Christmas!
#365daysofbiking Highly evolved:
December 2nd – For the second time in two days, I was out without a camera, and reliant on my phone. On my return I had to nip up to Walsall Wood, so conducted an experiment and took a favourite shot from Anchor Bridge.
This is a phone photo.
I find the quality of this astounding – I know well of course that the clever bit here is software overcoming the huge hardware limitations of a tiny camera. But the quality from my iPhone is astounding.
An image of this quality from a phone even 5 years ago would have been unthinkable.
The evolution of technology is remarkable.
#365daysofbiking You’ve come a long way baby:
November 25th – A late, short, frantic test ride saw me crossing Clayhanger common by the Spot Path and just as I neared the Pier Street Bridge this view pulled me up short.
Just 18 months ago, I’d have been looking at an empty marketplace, forlorn, money, desolate.
Now look at it.
A change for the better that did much to cheer me up.
#365daysofbiking Fade to grey:
November 24th – A grey , dark day with few redeeming features. A little maintenance on the bikes failed in the face of a more serious issue, and I headed out before nightfall for a breather. A full circuit of Chasewater and Chasetown offered little in the way of photo opportunities, and the images, apart from one, reflected the colour of the day.
The night, some what perversely however, was a bit more dramatic, as I captured at Anchor Bridge.
#365daysofbiking Where my heart lies:
November 21st – After a cold, slow ride through the lanes and up Shire Oak Hill, a quick breather on Shire Oak Hill looking toward the town I was headed into.
Brownhills may not be pretty. It may not be posh. It has it’s problems.
But as I contemplate getting back on the bike and rolling into town, I remember the place I love, the community, the characters, the history and how much I love it.
Nearing home is a wonderful feeling – especially when you’re so tired.
#365daysofbiking Not just pointless, but wrong:
November 18th – This one may be of interest to the Back the Track guys.
When the NCN – National Cycle Network – was created by charity Sustrans in the late 90s in the UK as a Millennium Project, the Royal Bank of Scotland invested heavily in creating thousands of cast iron mileposts for the new routes, to be erected, well, every mile. Apart from being an utter waste of metal and time, the money spaffed on this pointless vanity crap could have gone into trail upkeep or whatever.
I notice of late some kind soul with a surfeit of time has been touring the network painting and renovating these monuments to banking largesse, but this one, on the old rail line just south of the Old Cement Works – or Slough – Bridge in Brownhills remains neglected and forgotten.
There’s a reason for that.
It’s not actually on the National Cycle network at all.
Trail 5 comes through Brownhills on its amble from Walsall to Lichfield, and at this point arrives at the bridge from Ryders Hayes by canal towpath; it then continues up onto the bridge and along the former line north to Coppice Lane. This post is about 15 metres off the route on a cuthrough to Apex Road, that’s not actually part of the route at all, and due to barriers and a steep bank, is dammed hard to get a bike up.
So not just pointless, but wrong.
Sustrans. Never knowingly the cyclist’s friend.
#365daysofbiking Common ground:
November 18th – I visited the really very good craft fair at the community centre and then went for a trundle over the commons and around the cycle trails of Brownhills – including the new part of the former railway between the Swan Pub and Miner Island. It was a lovely, golden, sunny afternoon and although chilly, not excessively so.
The fungus on the common was still showing well, but the star of the walk was the old railway, which the volunteers of Back the Track have been making a wonderful job of. The tunnel effect of the trees that line the old railway cutting is really rather remarkable, especially in the hazy sunlight.
It’s good to be reminded of just how beautiful even central Brownhills can be.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 