November 15th – I span up the High Street and back down a canal just to stretch my legs and get some air. Not too bad for handheld shots, this one really. Considering it was relatively early, I couldn’t get over how quiet the town was. I didn’t see a single soul and very few cars.
September 17th – Uh-oh, in comes autumn. The days are still warm in the sun, but when it goes in, the temperature drops considerably. There’s an edge to the air, and in the evenings it’s started to feel rather chilly. Sunset is earlier and earlier.
From Catshill Junction today, the trees and scrub are starting to turn.
Autumn is unstoppable, and bearing down on me now…
September 15th – Catshill Junction Bridge has had this horrid step for years. There used to be a concrete ramp between the footpath and the bridge deck, but it broke up and washed away in the rain.
The Canal and River Trust have been asked to repair this on multiple occasions, to no avail.
Yesterday, they announced that a crew would be out on Wednesday ‘to make it accessible’.
I’ll believe it when I see it…
September 10th – I was busy with technical stuff all day and finally got out as darkness fell. I spun up the High Street into Brownhills, up to Anchor Bridge, and back via Catshill Junction and Silver Street, catching the lights on the canal in all their unexpected splendour.
I love that view. The tower blocks across the old marketplace didn’t work out to badly, either…
September 8th – I’ve been a bit disappointed with the new housing development on the site of former tower block Bayley House in Brownhills, between Lindon Drive and Catshill Junction.
Unlike much of local housing development by Walsall Housing Group, it’s very boxy, plain and red brick, and aesthetically mediocre, at best. Secondly, the overgrown canal bank, trees and hidden, overgrown sculpture – which could have been made a feature – have been ignored. Lower floor dwellings in that building must be horridly dark.
I’ve heard it said a local canal group are planning to tend the sculpture, but that isn’t the point: if you pump a few million into developments, a few finishing touches and nods to decent aesthetics cost next to nothing.
Unusually for WHG, this is very poor.
August 13th – A bit better today, and I’m on the mend, and out and about earlier. Time I note for another periodic explanation…
This isn’t pollution at Catshill Junction, or anywhere else it’s happening. This time the scum film at wind traps and bends on the canal is caused by rose bay willow herb plants, which are currently going to seed and producing oodles of the white fluff.
Just like the sallow earlier in the year, it looks horrid as the chaff and hairy detritus forms a film on the water – but it’ll soon be gone.
Another curious little marker of the passing seasons.
July 9th – I wasn’t particularly late back, but the golden hour seemed to settle in early, on a peaceful, mirror calm Catshill Junction. The new flats have balconies now, but still no sign of anything being done with the scrub and statue on the canal bank.
On the towpath side, the buggers don’t seem to stop mowing at the moment – I’ve never known a year like it. It’s almost as if the moment an interesting flower pops up it must be cut down.
It never used to be like this. I’m convinced it’s just so the Canal and River Trust can look like they’re pro active whilst ignoring real infrastructure issues.
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