Tag: Christmas

#365daysofbiking Archbishop of the hedgerow

December 20th – In Telford where I’d nipped for one last task before Christmas, the weather was mild and fairly dry, but it did feel Christmassy and my mood was lifted by the abundance of holly on the Hortonwood cycleways and hedgerows.

Holly is such a beautiful evergreen and the veritable archbishop of the hedgerow, it’s easy to see why the pagans loved it as a symbol of midwinter regeneration.

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#365daysofbiking Marketing again

December 19th – I took a longer visit to the Frankfurt Christmas Market in Birmingham, and had a great hour two pottering around. The relaxed midweek bible allowed me to visit Centenary Square and me and my companion explored long exposure and the Birmingham Eye.

As ever, the light, the atmosphere and weather combined, and it was a great evening.

Just one question: Will they ever finish Paradise Forum?

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#365daysofbiking Slight return


December 18th – It had been a long day – into Brum early, mechanical problems with the bike and then back to Darlaston. It was wet but quite warm when I returned to Brownhills: The state of the towpath between Catshill Junction and Brownhills is now so flooded I usually hop back on the High Street at Anchor Bridge.

The pub always looks so welcoming in the dark.

This is always a long, hard week, but the weather and lack of light really are getting to me.

Come on Christmas, I need a break.

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#365daysofbiking Welcoming


December 16th – Another wet day, and again the camera stayed most in it’s case. But returning through Walsall Wood, it was nice to see the tree and the old church looking warm and welcoming; there was clearly an event inside.

I’m not a religious man but that did make for a lovely scene on a very dark evening.

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#365daysofbiking I want to see the bright lights tonight

December 12th – Walsall’s Christmas lights are not ostentatious these days, but Walsall always looks sort of Christmassy at night anyway.

Whether it’s Bridge Street or Leicester Street, the street lighting, vehicles, building lights and architecture combine to make something quite festive and magical.

For all the stick it gets, Walsall isn’t a bad old place.

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#365daysofbiking The Christmas list

December 12th – The Christmas tree in Walsall is usually very nicely done. After a few grim yers in the early 2000s when lighting contractors synthesised something akin to a tree from a lighting column to universal derision, then a year or two without, we now get a pretty decent tree in the square between the bus station, bank and the Crossing at St. Pauls.

This year’s tree is excellent – but following blustery weather, developed an unfortunate tilt. It’s now fixed, but still not quite plum.

I think it adds character.

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#365daysofbiking Tinseltown in the rain

December 11th – A fowl night again found me returning home in heavy rain. Really heavy, almost torrential.

Photography was near impossible, so I grabbed a couple of flying shots of the downtown Christmas lights of Brownhills with my phone.

I actually. like these, they’re atmospheric and exactly how the night felt.

I really will need treatment for webbed toes soon, I feel.

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#365daysofbiking A tale of two trees

December 10th – Christmas trees in Walsall Borough have to be externally funded and the council won’t pay for them. In the district centres where they are present, someone has either usually been generous individually (like the three councillors who personally pay for Walsall Wood’s tree) or the public have come together to pay for them.

Setting an early example in the public subscription stakes has always been Rushall, whose community work hard every year to raise the money required to pay for a tree to be erected on the square outside the ‘Village Hub’ – the old library – and jolly festive it looks too.

Contrast that with the pitiful string of lights thrown on a random tree every year on the public open space in Shelfield, on the corner of Four Crosses Road and Lichfield Road.

I really don’t know why they bother there, I really don’t.

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#365daysofbiking Consolation

December 8th – I went out early to catch a festive market at Chasewater.

By 11 O’clock it was called off, apparently due to the wind. I found the situation baffling, if I’m honest: I got there as everything was being packed away. I’d actually been looking forward to the event, and felt deflated.

Still, nothing to be done and it was actually quite a nice day, so I carried on for a spin, bumping into this group of ladies on my way to the cafe, which was a decent consolation if I’m honest.

Always nice to see the deer about.

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#365daysofbiking Festive colour

December 6th – Every year I swear will be my last visit to Birmingham’s annual Frankfurt German Market. After catching an almost identical one in Leeds in 2018, I’d concluded that these things were just a concoction for tourists selling all the same tat every year.

However, whenever I’m presented with the reality – the smell of food, the noise, the colour and spectacle – my heart melts and I really enjoy a potter around. I’ve found the best time to go is at night, midweek: Busy enough to be fun, calm enough to be tolerable.

I never buy much – save for the obligatory meaty and sweet treats – but I enjoy the frenetic beauty of it.

I must say, the people who lit it and New Street this year did a cracking job.

Merry Christmas Birmingham!

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