December 13th – The kind of cold, crisp morning that grabs your throat and seizes the air from within. The canal had frozen a little, and as I headed to the town Christmas market, I thought how beautiful the canal looked at Pier Street in it’s winter jacket.
In recent winters, we haven’t had nearly enough days like this. This year, I hope there are more. It’s the beauty of winter.
December 12th – Tesco, the retail giant, are in trouble. Beset by falling sales, a very competitive market and seemingly mired in financial scandal, they abandoned plans to redevelop Brownhills which left us with a rotting, decaying, derelict shopping centre and no regeneration plan.
Yet still their store operates, raking the money in…
Never mind, it’s Christmas and they’ve put a green paper hat on the sign.
Dear god, why? What an utter, utter waste by a company that can ill afford it. Are we all supposed to cheer? Perhaps Tesco could organise community carolling in Ravens Court.
One things for sure: the directors of Tesco came from the west, because wise men come from the east.
December 12th – I’ trying a new camera out. It’s got similar specs to the one I normally use, a Panasonic TZ60, but this one is made by Canon and is a Powershot SX700. I’ve got it on loan, just to check the competition, as I have the feeling the spring may not bring a new Panasonic model like it usually does.
Shooting out at teatime after a day in Birmingham, darkness probably wasn’t the best time to try and use a new camera, but it wasn’t so bad.
I like some of the features of the cannon, but the images seem a bit colder, if I’m honest. Also, the controls seem quite pointlessly complex, but I’m sure I get used to them…
I’m sure coming days will give me a better idea.
December 7th – it was a beautiful afternoon with a very unpleasant wind, but the sun and commons of Brownhills were a joy to behold. The heaths and scrub glowed beautifully, as did the canal embankments.
These days it’s hard to imagine these beautiful places have a harsh, lingering industrial legacy.
Looking for deer near the site of the lost Coombe House, at Coppice Side, I spotted this monitoring well, a int of a none-too-pleasant past; this is the edge of a former landfill and boreholes like this are regularly unlocked and ‘dipped’ to monitor contamination. The EX symbol warns of an explosive gas hazard – methane, mostly, from rotting refuse buried underground.
This is a problematic site and will require monitoring for many years to come.
I looked up from it to see the backside of a young hind disappearing into the the copse…
December 7th – I don’t remember Brownhills having the waterfowl when I was a kid that we have now – swans, mallards, coots, canada geese and more all dwell on the canals, pools and waterways, often aggressively hassling walkers for food.
I love these comical birds and their antics. Today at Chasewater, with the boating lake still dry,the residents were crowding the southern shore around the castle, jonesing for scraps and seed – so greedy, they didn’t even mind the presence of a dog.
Down by the watermead, an aggressive beggar blocked my right of way and pecked my tires.
I think they’re wonderful…
December 6th – Out in daylight for the first time in a while, and the afternoon was hard and cold. Over to Burntwood for some shopping, I hammered it up the canal in a harsh but golden hour before dusk. The huge black and white smug cat was a gem at the back of Milfield School, and that dog… I could just take it home. Gorgeous.
Returning over Chasewater,I was snagged by the moon rising over the motorway – I’d forgotten the night-time beauty of the distant windy sweep of cars as they passed.
December 5th – The Anchor pub looks great at night, but it’s difficult to get a good angle on it. Not a pub I ever really go in much, but it always looks warm and cosy on winter nights like this.
December 3rd – It was very late when I came home through Brownhills. There was a frost, and the roads, despite having gritted, were glistening in that menacing way winter cyclists know and are wary of.
I’m still rocking he new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres I fitted a few weeks ago; these revised rubbers are vastly superior so far to there older incarnation, and they’ve been excellent on wet, greasy roads. I wondered what they would be like on ice, so took them for a run up the canal towpath.
They seemed to hold the track well. Only time will tell, but so far I’m very impressed.
Watch out for the black ice folks, it’s a killer.
December 3rd – There’s a lot of grumbling about Christmas lights at the moment. I find it all a bit puzzling, to be honest.
This country voted in an austerity-pushing government, and people are now outraged austerity is affecting things near to them, like Christmas lights. I guess the pitch of such a policy was that it would always apply to others…
I think Brownhills lights are OK, to be honest. They’ll not set the world afire, and Blackpool has nothing to worry about, but they’re cheerful enough.
Personally, I preferred the lovely window display in the upstairs flat window of a shop in High Street. That seems more about Christmas to me.
November 30th – OK, everybody stop panicking. The Christmas lights are up and on in Brownhills. You can all stop mailing/messaging me.
Yes, I know it’s a work in progress, and one or two ain’t on yet, but they’re up, and look much better than this photo would suggest.
Folk seem really early with this stuff this year…
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 