December 22nd – I’d had a day Christmas shopping in Buxton by train, and came home hungry. Feeling the takeaway urge, I headed out for fresh air to stretch my muscles and bag a decent curry.
Where else do you go to recharge late on a quiet, dark Friday night in Brownhills?
I guess the wind blew me this way. The canal was still, the boats peaceful, with just a hint of woodsmoke.
I love how this town can be so unexpectedly beautiful.
December 17th – Riding up over Anchor Bridge towards Shire Oak I spotted the boat that had broken the ice back by Silver Street: a contractor’s work boat, which appears to have been cutting back overgrown trees from the canalside.
That must be hard work at anytime, but more so in the cold. I was also interested that the boat appeared to be tethered on a side of the canal not reachable by pedestrians, so the work crew must have a dinghy or something.
If anyone knows how they moored that and got out dry, I’d love to know…
December 17th – Sunday was a much better day, but whilst the ice didn’t melt as much as I’d hoped, it was well on the way. I love ice and snow. But when it’s fresh; I can’t bear it hanging around. I like a good heavy snowfall, a few days of fun, then a fast thaw.
Not so with this one.
I looped around Brownhills on errands, delivering Christmas cards as night fell: The High Street was grey and damp in the drizzle, but the canal at Silver Street fascinating with the ice, broken up by a passing boat.
Not feeling terribly Christmassy yet. Hope that changes soon.
December 11th – After getting one or two bits of shopping in, it was dark so I went up onto Pier Street Bridge to take in one of my favourite views with an added snowy flavour.
What’s interesting about these images is one is taken with an iPhone, and the other with a pretty decent camera. Apart from the dirty lens on the phone camera, you’d barely tell the two images apart for quality.
How technology marches on…
December 11th – I’d run around in the morning sorting displaced family members out and getting them back where they needed to be in the chaos of a snow-hit morning rush hour, so spent the day working from home. It was bitingly cold and with the snow a wee bit to deep to ride far in, I contented myself with getting caught up in the peace of a warm, quiet house.
Nipping out to take the air late afternoon in a lazy loop around Walsall Wood and Brownhills, taken slowly due to the conditions, I caught a lovely bit of snow day sunset at Anchor Bridge.
It caught me short for a bit. What a a gorgeous view that is.
December 10th – I continued from Chasewater up around Engine Lane and down to old railway trail to the old cement works bridge overlooking the council depot, where gritters and ploughs were coming and going in a constant stream.
There was a lot of angst on social media about grit, road treatment and ploughing, and as ever, I felt particularly for the poor folk doing this hard, almost thankless task.
Elsewhere, the swans weren’t bother by the cold from what I could tell, and Morris seemed happy with his new white mantel.
Temperatures were dropping as it got dark and it would be interesting to see what happened next day as the freeze deepened.
December 10th – They say things come to those who wait, and overnight between Saturday and Sunday someone turned on the celestial snow machine. At it was still running when I headed out mid afternoon into a Brownhills Narnia.
Too deep and soft to ride much in, I was content with a loop around Brownhills to Chasewater in a pristine white landscape the looked stunning. If this hung around it would cause traffic mayhem, but I didn’t care: It was a long time since I’d seen snow this deep and I revelled in it.
Snow really brings out my inner child.
December 8th – As I approached the supermarket at Burntwood, there was a sadly short but very enjoyable whiteout. The snow was heavy, fast and think, and all of a sudden, my ride was transformed from a normal shopping errand into an adventure.
The snow stopped pretty quickly, but left a decent enough cover that made a familiar night-time view at Anglesey Basin beautiful and gave e an interesting and challenging ride back to Brownhills.
December 8th – The forecast had been for heavy snow during the day, and whilst it had been cold, the anticipated white stuff only presented a dusting by the time I headed over to Burntwood as night fell. I was quite disappointed if I’m honest, but I headed out into an impressively blue night to try the snow tyres for the first really icy outing of the year.
They were, as always, excellent, as were the views on the way, which made the ride much better than expected.
And then, something quite unexpected happened…
December 2nd – Again passing through the Wood, this time to Screwfix, it was a grim, miserable, drizzly dank day – but at least it was much, much warmer than in previous days.
The ice was melting, and some of the less religiously inclined types were relishing their fast diminishing ability to walk on water…
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